Volunteer Work With Elephants

I spent 12 days volunteering with elephants. I loved the elephants and work was what it was described on the net.

Prity guesthouse was a great experience. They are very welcoming and they let me participate in their birthday party and diwali. They always made sure I am happy with everything and my trip is safe as I am a female solo traveler.

People at guesthouse answered all my questions about India and their culture and so did Surendra and the conversations were easy and interesting.

I also recommend to use VWI's drivers. Tota Ram and Shekra. They know the place well and have great characters. I had one scary experience with a tuktuk I took from a street so to avoid any risks I would use these guys. I highly recommend women travelers to be careful here.

My only disappointments were the chains elephants have. I am a huge animal lover and it was hard to see that but this is how it is for now. I heard some of the elephants were rescued from places like circus which I consider a lot worse option for them. Here the people who work with them genuinely care about them and they made sure I cleaned their blocks well enough. Hopefully one day they have bigger places where they can stay when they are not working. Also I had imagined there are other volunteers the whole time I am staying here but because of the time of the year (October) and people not having holidays I felt sometimes lonely even though VWI gave me ideas what to do on free time. I would definitely do this again but I would make sure that there would be company of other volunteers or my friends.

Volunteering with elephants was truly an unforgettable experience I will never forget. If you love elephants and want something different with your time in Jaipur then this project is right for you. We got to spend lots of time with the elephants away from the traffic and crowds. We helped make chabati for them, fed them, cleaned their area, gave lots of hugs and pats. Was awesome to meet other volunteers on the program from other countries. The staff work very for these elephants. The staff are very friendly and made us feel very welcome. We also visited the baby elephant close by. I now have so many amazing memories bonding with these elephants and incredible photos to treasure. I highly recommend you join this program, you won’t regret it.

I worked with Volunteering with India in the medical project but I had the opportunity to work as a volunteer in the elephant project for one day.

At the beginning I wasn’t sure I’d like it but finally I have really enjoyed my time there, being part of the team, cleaning and taking care of the elephants especially because not all the elephants can be returned to the wild and this project provides a lovely home for them.

It has been an interesting experience and I also enjoy to spend time with the people in charge of them.
They can teach you how to interact with these kind of animals.

Now I can say that elephants standard of living is higher than before and these are some of the reasons why I recommend this project.

... India at least once in their lifetime.

It was my first time here and I felt safe as at home from the first instance. The first hours in India were amazing and really funny, it started on the road from Delhi to Jaipur with the coloured trucks and the horns from the traffic with the crew.

The crew from Volunteeringwithindia is amazing, they helped me, showed me about the city and their work here and I learnt a lot from what I saw. I also exchanged a lot of experiences and knowledge with the other volunteers from the programme.

The guesthouse was a happy sweet place and Toto was a great tuktuk driver as well as a good guide.

The experience about working with the elephants was very good to me as well as the time I spent in Jaipur. I would do it again for sure.

Thank you all guys!

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!

We volunteered to join two projects with VWI and started at Elephant village. Upon arrival in Jaipur me and my husband were picked up from the airport late at night by the coordinator and immediately felt welcomed and taken care of. We received an itinerary which explained everything in great detail and was very helpful for us to understand what the elephant project involved. We were collected every morning on time at 5am. The coordinator for the elephant village was super flexible -if we woke up late it was never a problem. He met us as the sun started to rise with a big smile making everything joyful from the beginning . The work was much easier than we initially thought. The elephant huts were cleaned every morning followed by elephant showers and then feeding time. The elephants are working animals, this at first made us feel a little uncomfortable. But as the days went by and after learning more about the government scheme for families and elephants. The elephants are always very gentle and calm, and we soon realised that they were very well taken care of by their owners (mahout). We felt overwhelmed by their kindness and care- the mahouts who have very little demonstrated such patience and love for their individual elephants.. and so it was clear to us that this was a positive environment for them all.

I was able to work with the elephants for a week in Jaipur and in that time got hands-on experience with the elephants everyday! A typical morning would consist of cleaning out the elephants area followed by washing them with water and brushing them down. We were able to get to know the people who looked after them everyday and formed lovely friendships with them, which made the experience even better. The elephants were all so friendly, which meant we were able to constantly feed them treats such as bananas, which was such an incredible experience. The people working there made you feel very safe around the elephants, which increased my confidence when around the elephants. During the two afternoons we got to spend with the elephants, we were able to make chapati for them from scratch which was such a unique experience. During this time we also got to know the elephants better as well as feeding them more sugar cane. Overall it was such a unique experience and very fun! I would recommend it to anyone who likes animals and wants to be hands-on with these amazing creatures!

I volunteered with Elephants Program for a week because I wanted to discover those magnificent animals and to be in immersion into indian daily life, and I am fully satisfied. It's an unforgettable experience. The guesthouse family is lovely and always available to help you or happy to have conversations with you. The team members I met, Sukret, Rohid and Shekhear, were perfect. Everything was properly organized and booked. They take good care of me and, as a lonely traveler, I never felt alone. My experience with elephants was precious and mahouts' life is so interesting to discover. Elephants are so sensitive and intelligent animal and it is a great opportunity to discover it by myself.
Big thanks to the Prity Guesthouse family and to VWI team !
I definitely recommend this program.