{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-572d6a42.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-f4d0de30.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='Elephant polo tournament raises money for animal welfare charities' data-url='/boclips/videos/5c54d748d8eafeecae20a909' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/5c54d748d8eafeecae20a909' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\nElephant polo tournament raises money for animal welfare charities\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca data-publisher-id=\"30356011\" href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=30356011\"\u003eCurated Video\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003eLEADIN              They're not know for being light on their feet, but in Bangkok elephants are taking the place of ponies on the polo pitch.              The King's Cup Elephant Polo tournament has raised 1.5 million US Dollars for...\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003eLEADIN\u003cbr/\u003e              They're not know for being light on their feet, but in Bangkok elephants are taking the place of ponies on the polo pitch.\u003cbr/\u003e              The King's Cup Elephant Polo tournament has raised 1.5 million US Dollars for elephant welfare since it first began.\u003cbr/\u003e              STORYLINE\u003cbr/\u003e              One of the world's quirkiest charity events got underway in Bangkok when the elite sport of polo put aside its thoroughbred ponies and embraced instead 20 lumbering Thai elephants.\u003cbr/\u003e              This is the 16th staging of the King's Cup Elephant Polo tournament. Organisers say in that time it's raised around 1.5 million US Dollars for the welfare of the huge beasts that are its stars.\u003cbr/\u003e              The action was hot and especially heavy as competition began. During the next four days, 10 teams will trudge, plod and occasionally thunder round the riverside pitch, at a Thai five-star hotel, trying to score in the plus-size goals.\u003cbr/\u003e              There are three elephants per team, and two people - a player and mahout, or handler - on each elephant. Matches are seven minutes per half, with a 15-minute half-time break, to reduce exposure to the tropical heat.\u003cbr/\u003e              It was originally played with a football, but the elephants grew too fond of popping them, so these days the players take aim at a standard polo ball.\u003cbr/\u003e              The concept is so barmy Lewis Carroll could have dreamt it up. In fact, it all began with a whimsical conversation, three decades ago.\u003cbr/\u003e              \"It started some 30 years ago,\" says organiser Tim Boda, \"when basically a couple of friends who were at the St. Moritz winter polo, horse polo obviously, discussed whether this would be possible to play on elephants. And that's what they did. They tried first in Nepal, and then it became a sport.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              A sport that poses unique challenges, from mammoth balls of dung that require regular removal to mallets that are about two meters (6.6 feet) long, and women are allowed to use both hands to wield them.\u003cbr/\u003e              But according to this year's defending champions from India, the hardest part is just getting your ride to do what you want it to do.\u003cbr/\u003e              \"I think it's the communication with the mahout, and his communication with the elephant,\" says Uday Kalaan. \"In polo, in normal horse polo, it's just you and the horse, here it's a three-way communication. That's the hardest.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              On the polo field it's all hard competition, high spirits and good, clean fun. But in an office on the other side of the city, the sport is viewed in a less positive light. \u003cbr/\u003e              Elephant polo is banned in the western Indian state of Rajasthan and animal welfare campaigners would like to see the same thing happen in Thailand. Using elephants to entertain humans, they say, is unacceptable.\u003cbr/\u003e              \"We consider this is a cruelty because we encourage people to understand more on the elephants. They are elephants, they are wild animals,\" says Somsak Soonthornnawaphat, of World Animal Protection.\u003cbr/\u003e              The organisers say that these elephants are street elephants, kept in often poor conditions and frequently neglected. They say this tournament gives them a few days respite during which they are well fed and checked over by experts. Their mahouts get to see and learn what proper care looks like. \u003cbr/\u003e              Also, they say, there are strict rules on how much weight they can carry. And the mahouts must swap their sharp bill-hooks for ones with blunt, taped-up ends.\u003cbr/\u003e              Elephant specialist John Roberts says he understands the concerns but says a lot of thought goes into preparing the event.\u003cbr/\u003e              \"From two weeks out I am working to try to make sure that everything is in place to ensure that the welfare of the elephants when they are not playing is at least at a level above what they are getting at home,\" he says.\u003cbr/\u003e              \"By bringing the elephants into an environment like this they're getting interaction\", says elephant osteopath Tony Nevin, part of the care team for the event. \u003cbr/\u003e              \"They are highly intelligent and they need stimulus both physically and mentally and they are getting all the veterinary care that they possibly wouldn't get otherwise.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              The organisers, the Anantara Hotel chain, say the money raised goes to projects that improve the lot of Thailand's domesticated elephants - once symbols of the nation, now often attached to cheap tourist shows to make money.\u003cbr/\u003e              But despite their sad fall from pre-eminence to novice polo players, they are still awesome beasts.\u003cbr/\u003e              \"When I got on it for the first time yesterday, being on top of the elephant it was entirely intimidating,\" says Scott Cullather, from New York, \"but actually I believe they seem to know what you need and what you are about and so they are quite gentle and friendly underneath all that power.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              The tournament goes on through the weekend, combining music, food, parades and fashions shows. The grand final is on Sunday.\u003cbr/\u003e            \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e              Bangkok, Thailand - 8 March 2018 \u003cbr/\u003e              1. Mid of referee John Roberts throwing ball to start match\u003cbr/\u003e              2. Wide of match action with one team scoring a goal\u003cbr/\u003e              3. Mid of player raising a thumbs-up\u003cbr/\u003e              4. Various of match action\u003cbr/\u003e              5. Wide of team scoring another goal\u003cbr/\u003e              6. Mid of elephant's head\u003cbr/\u003e              7. SOUNDBITE (English) Tim Boda, Tournament Organiser\u003cbr/\u003e              \"It started some 30 years ago when basically a couple of friends who were at the St. Moritz winter polo, horse polo obviously, discussed whether this would be possible to play on elephants. And that's what they did. They tried first in Nepal, and then it became a sport.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              8. Two people remove elephant dung from field\u003cbr/\u003e              9. Wide of aides handing up a long polo mallet to a player who then tries it out\u003cbr/\u003e              10. Various of match action\u003cbr/\u003e              11. Wide of spectators \u003cbr/\u003e              12. Mid of goal being scored\u003cbr/\u003e              13. SOUNDBITE (English) Uday Kalaan, defending champion\u003cbr/\u003e              \"I think it's the communication with the mahout, and his communication with the elephant. In polo, in normal horse polo it's just you and the horse, here it's a three-way communication. That's the hardest.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              14. SOUNDBITE (English) Angad Kalaan, defending champion\u003cbr/\u003e              \"It's like you know where to get to but it's up to the mahout to get you there. So no kicking the elephant is going to get it there any quicker.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              15. Various of match action\u003cbr/\u003e              16. Wide of team scoring a goal\u003cbr/\u003e              \u003cbr/\u003e              Bangkok, Thailand – 6 March 2018 \u003cbr/\u003e              17. Various of animal rights campaigner Somsak Soonthornnawaphat, of World Animal Protection, looking through wildlife book\u003cbr/\u003e              18. SOUNDBITE (English) Somsak Soonthornnawaphat, World Animal Protection\u003cbr/\u003e              \"Using for the entertainment and sport, like this, we consider this is a cruelty because we encourage people to understand more on the elephants. They are elephants, they are wild animals.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              \u003cbr/\u003e              Bangkok – 8 March 2018 \u003cbr/\u003e              19. Various of elephants eating their way through a table laden with fruit\u003cbr/\u003e              20. Wide of elephants cooling off, with mahouts spraying them with water\u003cbr/\u003e              21. Wide of mahouts handing in their hooks to be swapped for ones with blunt, taped-up ends.\u003cbr/\u003e              22. Wide of John Roberts, Elephant specialist\u003cbr/\u003e              23. SOUNDBITE (English) John Roberts, Elephant specialist\u003cbr/\u003e              \"We've got a team of vets, we have the osteopaths, we've got the zoological parks organisation, we have the mahouts themselves and everything else but even with that extensive team, from two weeks out I am working to try and make sure that everything is in place to ensure that the welfare of the elephants when they are not playing is at least at a level above what they are getting at home. Then when they are playing I am on the pitch every single minute that any elephant is playing, ideally I am on the pitch every single minute that any elephant is on the pitch and therefore watching that welfare, and if I am able to get a sense that an elephant is not enjoying it then the elephant can be retired immediately.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              24. Wide of match\u003cbr/\u003e              25. SOUNDBITE (English) Tony Nevin, Elephant Osteopath\u003cbr/\u003e              \"All of these elephants are street elephants and by that it means that sometimes for the entire 24-hour session of the day they're on a short chain behind that person's house. By bringing the elephants into an environment like this they're actually getting interaction, they are highly intelligent and they need stimulus both physically and mentally and they are getting all the veterinary care that they possibly wouldn't get otherwise.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              26. Various of match action\u003cbr/\u003e              27. SOUNDBITE (English) Scott Cullather, Novice player\u003cbr/\u003e              \"When I got on it for the first time yesterday, being on top of the elephant it was entirely intimidating. But actually I believe they seem to know what you need and what you are about and so they are quite gentle and friendly underneath all that power.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              28. 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class='title' id='concepts-heading'\u003eConcepts\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='clearfix'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='details-list concepts' data-identifier='Boclips::VideoDecorator' data-type='concepts'\u003enepal, southeast asia, wildlife, lewis carroll, south asia, elephants, philanthropy, thailand, animal welfare, asia, business, kicking, welfare, social issues, communication, horses, animals\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='concepts-toggle-buttons' data-identifier='Boclips::VideoDecorator'\u003e\n\u003cbutton aria-expanded='false' class='more btn-link' type='button'\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003eShow More\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fa-solid fa-caret-down ml5'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003c/button\u003e\n\u003cbutton aria-expanded='true' class='less btn-link' style='display: none;' type='button'\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003eShow Less\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fa-solid fa-caret-up 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