Underfed and chained up for endless hours, many elephants working in Thailand's tourism sector may starve, be sold to zoos or be shifted into the illegal logging trade, animal rights campaigners warn, as the coronavirus decimates visitor numbers.

Around 2,000 elephants are currently "unemployed" as the virus eviscerates Thailand's tourist industry, says Theerapat Trungprakan, president of the Thai Elephant Alliance Association. With global travel paralyzed the animals are unable to pay their way, including the 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of food a day a captive elephant needs to survive.

"My boss is doing what he can but we have no money," Kosin, a mahout – or elephant handler – says of the Chiang Mai camp where his elephant Ekkasit is living on a restricted diet. "We need 1,000 baht a day (about 30 U.S. dollars) for each elephant," says Apichet Duangdee, who runs the Elephant Rescue Park. In another words, the 2,000 elephants "unemployed" need 60 million baht (about 1.8 million U.S. dollars) per month. If the pandemic lasts longer, the financial needs will be huge.

Freeing these mammals into the forests is out of the question as they would likely be killed in territorial fights with wild elephants.

According to Bangkok Post, the Thai government is set to appropriate 10 percent of the fiscal 2020 budgets of each ministry for a central fund to fight the pandemic, with the total budget amounted to 1.98 trillion (about 59.8 billion dollars).

Calls are mounting for the government to fund stricken camps to ensure the welfare of elephants. Without an urgent bailout, elephant camps and conservationists warn hunger and the threat of renewed exploitation lie ahead.

Theerapat from the Thai Elephant Alliance Association fears the creatures could soon be used in illegal logging activities along the Thai-Myanmar border – in breach of a 30-year-old law banning the use of elephants to transport wood. Others "could be forced (to beg) on the streets," he said.

It is yet another twist in the saga of the exploitation of elephants, which animal rights campaigners have long been fighting to protect from the abusive tourism industry.

Before the virus, life for the kingdom's estimated 2,000 elephants working in tourism was already stressful, with abusive methods often used to "break them" into giving rides and performing tricks at money-spinning animal shows.

The pandemic has no doubt deteriorated the plight of elephants working in Thailand tourism. 

(With input from AFP, all images via VCG)

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