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Foreigners eager for the jumbo ride of their lives!
Publish Date : 12/2/2004 1:48:00 PM   Source : Culture and Community News

This tourist season has brought  good  news
for  elephant owners in Jaipur as the number of foreign  tourists
arriving  in  Amer  fort is almost double compared  to  the  last
season.
 
Presently  as many as 800 to 900 foreign nationals  are  enjoying
elephant  rides  while  climbing the Amer fort. 
 
Since   a   single  elephant   does   almost  double  trips,  the
elephant  trade  has  now become a money minting machine for  the
owners.
Long queues of foreign tourists throng the campus of Amer fort in
Jaipur.  The tourists are curious to go on elephant  rides  here.
This year, the number of elephant riders is highly encouraging to
the elephant owners themselves.
 
Kesh Furlord, a tourist said, "It is the most beautiful country I
have  ever seen. Its culture and the elephant ride is  beautiful.
The surroundings are peaceful, it is very nice."
 
Mahouts  on the other hand allege that while the  elephant  owner
mint  money,  they themselves are an impoverished lot.  They  get
paid as little as 1000 rupees as salary in spite of almost double
or triple business they provide to the owners during the season.
 
Reis, a mahout said, "Five to six turns are done, but we  mahouts
face a lot of problems. The owners don't pay us well, the tourist
guides too are like that. We earn Rs 200-300 per day".
 
Even  tour  operators acknowledge foreigners  being  crazy  about
Elephant  rides.  More  so  as Amer fort is  the  only  place  in
Rajasthan where they can enjoy elephant rides.
 
"Now-a-days,  350-400  Elephants are being  rotated,  earlier  it
wasn't like this. All get to earn well, even they (mahouts)  earn
well," said Mahendra Singh, tourist officer.
 
Elephant  owners also claim that their business has  witnessed  a
boom  this year and broken all the previous records of  the  last
fifteen years.
 
Babu Khan, President of Elephants Owners' Association said, "This
year, the tourist season has been better than the last. But it is
the  Pushkar  that will further determine as to how well  it  all
goes." (ANI)