TRAVEL Titbits Elehants in Chiang Mai can not only paint pictures but also plough rice fields.
This was witnessed recently at a charity event held recently at Baan Saen Doi Resort & Spa near Chiang Mai Night Safari. Karen villagers from Omkoi district demonstrate how they use elephants to work in rice fields. SUTHIRAT OWLARN During the demonstration, supported by Nok Air, a team of eight elephants was employed to work in an eight-rai paddy plot. “Using elephants in farming is nothing new. Karen villagers of Omkoi district (about 150 kilometres south of Chiang Mai) have been using them to till their land for generations,” said the resort owner Wanphen Sakdatorn. She explained that since the soil in Omkoi is hard, strewn with rocks, water buffaloes don’t fit the bill because they tire easily. The elephant being four times stronger is more suited to the task.
As a norm locals there don’t really domesticate elephants, and after every rice planting season the animals are released back into the forest, said a staffer of Omkoi’s Tha Kian Tambon Administration Office.