To witness elephants beaten, bloodied and injured, their natural lives forfeit – all in the name of tourism profits – is an outrage and a tragedy. And yet, this sordid practice takes place all over South-East Asia – in order to ‘break the spirits’ of elephants for easy tourism use. That much of this horror is driven by the UK market is cause for national shame.

How did Britain’s tourism industry sink to this? Since the 1960s, the package tour boom has fuelled intense demand for elephant attractions, triggering increased snatching of calves from the wild for riding, football, painting and other ‘entertainment’ – all based on ruthless ‘breaking’.

The UK plays a leading role in stoking demand, but also in supplying tourists to the elephant home states of South-East Asia – far more than any other European country (two million holidaymakers to India and Thailand in 2018 and 2019). In 2016, there were 13 million elephant rides in Thailand alone.

What of Covid? Broken elephants, held in fetid close confinement and denied any exercise (in the wild they typically walk 60km a day) are highly effective transmitters of deadly airborne viruses like TB, SARS and Ebola. As scientific enquiry advances, the risk they shed Covid-19, too, is obvious. 

The people of India, home to two thirds of surviving Asian elephants and desperately struggling with Covid, are at further risk from this reckless promotion of unscrupulous venues – a perfect storm of dangers when restrictions ease.