Traditionally and historically, the elephant has had a long association with Thailand and Thai people. Despite having protection in Thailand, elephant populations are vastly declining over the past 100 years due to many factors such as habitat deconstruction, poaching, climate change etc. Nowadays, there are only around 3,000-4,000 elephants remaining in Thailand and most of them are being held in captivity.
To honor this most gentle, yet powerful, of animals the National Thai Elephant Day was proposed on 13th March which is the day that white elephant was chosen to be ‘National Animal and Symbol of Thailand’. The National Thai Elephant Day or Chang Thai Day helps to draw people attention to see how important of elephant and show closely relationship between Thai people and elephant since a very long time ago. Moreover, this event also raises public awareness to protect and conserve the elephant population for our next generations.
On the National Thai Elephant Day, there are many activities have been crated to honor, support and pay respect to this wonderful animal which is so much a part of Thailand’s heritage and culture. Those kinds of activities include buffet food for elephant, traditional blessing ceremony and also special elephant show. On this day every year, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Chiang Mai University join with Mae Sa elephant camp, Chiang Mai run the activities for cerebrating this gorgeous natural creature.
