Karen Village-Based Elephant Tourism in Sangklaburi

Located 18 kilometres from hilly Sangklaburi town along Thai-Burma border, the Karen village of Baan Mai Pattana was originally called "Chi Deng Cheng". Since 1984, the residents of six Karen villages relocated here following the construction of Khao Laem Dam. Originally, only the Kui Ja Tho, one of the six villages, captured elephants from the wild to help transport rice. From under 10 elephants in the past, the number has now grown up to 30. Female elephants comprise two third of the whole population. Of the 30 elephants, more than 10 are still involved in logging around Three Pagodas Pass inside Burma. The elephants work there nearly all year round except for three months of the dry season.
Elephant Camps

Apart from the only one village-based elephant tourism in Sangklaburi, it may be surprising for some to know that there are more elephant tourism camps here than expected in Kanchanaburi with quite a lot of elephants employed. Currently, there are 10 lephant camps throughout the province. While most of the elephants working there are hired from other parts of the country, the northeastern in particular, some are from the border district of Sangklaburi). They are among many elephants which became unemployed following the 1989 national logging ban in Thailand.