Amazing Experience!

I have thoroughly enjoyed my 3 weeks volunteering with elephants! From my experience, each elephant is truly loved, respected and cared for by their mahouts. I think it is very easy (for Westerners especially) to judge and condemn the use of elephants for tourist rides, but after working closely with both the elephants and their mahouts, I encourage people to be more open-minded.
The actual work consists of waking early (arriving around 5.30am) where you begin by cleaning the area, washing the elephants, and feeding them bananas and chapattis. It’s hard work, but it gives you a real hands-on taster of what it’s like to look after these amazing animals, and the mahouts appreciate the help. The elephants all have very different personalities - some naughtier than others!
I always had a VWI coordinator with me too so if I had any questions, he was able to translate which helped a lot as the mahouts don’t speak much English.
I have felt welcomed, supported and valued during my time here. I would definitely recommend any of the VWI programmes for anyone keen to have a taste of the ‘real’ India!