I must have been four or five when an old family album left me with a question I would carry for years.
I was sitting with my grandfather, looking through photographs from one of his trips to Assam. He had been posted in Badarpur, in southern Assam, close to the borders of Tripura and Meghalaya. From there, he travelled to Kaziranga several times.
My grandfather would return to those trips in conversation for years. There had been an elephant safari too, something that was considered a fairly ordinary part of a wildlife holiday at the time.
I remember being fascinated by the photographs. But one thing puzzled me.
My grandfather had told me that Kaziranga was the elephants’ home and that visitors were only guests there. In my four-year-old logic, that raised another question: if we were entering their home and riding another elephant to see them, would the elephants know we were guests? And if we were guests in their home, who was supposed to look after us?
I did not have the vocabulary to understand animal behaviour or captive-elephant welfare then. I only knew that the question would not leave me, and I kept asking about it.
Eventually, I somehow convinced my grandfather to stop taking elephant safaris.
He continued visiting Kaziranga, drawn by his love for photographing wildlife, a fascination that was not nearly as common among the people around us then. But the rides stopped.
Years later, that childhood question feels even more relevant: what does a tourist experience look like from the elephant’s side?
That question sits at the centre of Wildlife SOS’s RefuseToRide campaign, which asks travellers to reconsider one of the most familiar wildlife-tourism experiences in India: sitting on an elephant for a ride.
The Better India recently spoke to Dr Kartick Satyanarayan, co-founder and CEO of Wildlife SOS, to understand why the organisation believes refusing that ride matters.
What happens before an elephant becomes ‘rideable’?
For the person climbing onto an elephant, the experience may last only a short while. Wildlife SOS asks tourists to consider everything that may have happened before that moment.
According to the organisation, many elephants used in tourism are captured from the wild as calves and separated from their mothers and herds. The young elephant is restrained, isolated and subjected to deprivation and beatings until fear makes it submit to human commands.
The tourist’s few minutes on the animal form one part of a much longer story. There is the process that makes an elephant “rideable”, followed by the conditions in which the animal lives and works after tourists leave.
Understanding those parts of the elephant’s life changes the question from whether a ride looks enjoyable to what the experience demands from the animal carrying it.
What a tourist ride asks of an elephant’s body
An elephant’s body is designed for movement through forests and grasslands. Tourism can ask that same body to carry a heavy platform and several people for hours.
Wildlife SOS points to the weight of the howdah (a saddle-like platform) placed on an elephant for rides. The organisation says a howdah can weigh around 200 kg. With tourists aboard, the total load can exceed 300 kg.
Over prolonged periods, that weight can place pressure on the animal’s spine and feet.
Captive working elephants can also develop foot problems, wounds and other physical ailments. Wildlife SOS has documented conditions including foot sores, dehydration and injuries among working elephants, with some animals made to work for long periods.
Tourism today has the opportunity to respond to what we now understand about elephants’ physical and behavioural needs. Photograph: (refusetoride.org)
Then there are the hours that rarely make it into a tourist’s photographs.
Captive elephants used for tourism may spend long periods chained, with limited opportunities to move, forage or interact with other elephants.
For a highly social animal, losing that freedom of movement, choice and companionship can affect psychological health as well as physical wellbeing. Wildlife SOS describes stereotypic behaviour and psychological distress among elephants that have spent years in captivity.
Look at the calf before you look at the ride
Perhaps the most difficult part of understanding elephant rides begins long before an adult elephant carries its first tourist.
It begins with the calf.
“Imagine a calf growing up in the wild,” Satyanarayan says. “It is learning everything from its mother and the herd — where to go, how to behave, how to survive.”
When that calf is removed from the wild, it loses physical freedom, its family and social world, and the opportunity to learn the skills an elephant needs to survive in its natural habitat.
According to Wildlife SOS, some elephant calves are captured from the wild for commercial exploitation, feeding an illegal trade in elephants. This is where an individual tourist’s decision becomes connected to a larger system of demand.
Wildlife SOS has documented conditions including foot sores, dehydration and injuries among working elephants, with some animals made to work for long periods. Photograph: (refusetoride.org)
“If tourists continue to pay for elephant rides, there is an economic incentive to keep these animals in captivity,” Satyanarayan explains. “So the question is not just whether you want to ride an elephant. It is also whether your money is helping sustain that demand.”
For Satyanarayan, the tourist’s decision therefore forms part of a wider conservation picture.
India holds a majority of the world’s remaining wild Asian elephants and is considered their last major stronghold. At the same time, the species faces several pressures, including shrinking habitat, development in elephant corridors, poaching and human-elephant conflict.
The removal of young elephants from the wild adds another layer to those pressures.
When an elephant’s death raised difficult questions
The welfare of elephants working in tourism came into focus again after the death of a safari elephant in Kaziranga.
On 11 December 2025, Swarnamoyee, a 50-year-old safari elephant in Kaziranga National Park, collapsed on National Highway-715 after completing two tourist trips.
She briefly got back on her feet after receiving treatment, but collapsed again and died. Initial reports cited respiratory failure.
Her death raised questions about the conditions in which safari elephants are kept.
According to Mongabay-India, elephants used for private safaris in Kaziranga may be kept tied beside the highway overnight. Local elephant owner Pinku Ali said Swarnamoyee had shown no previous signs of illness before collapsing.
Another local stakeholder, Dipak Borgohain, told Mongabay-India that the noise of trucks and other heavy vehicles could disturb elephants through the night. Some are also required to wake at around 3 am for the morning safari.
He said the lack of sleep, cold conditions and early working hours could contribute to stress and exhaustion.
Swarnamoyee’s death, by itself, does not establish that tourist rides caused her death. Her case does, however, bring attention to a wider question: what conditions are elephants working in tourism expected to live, rest and work in?
For the tourist, a safari ends when the ride does. For the elephant, those working and living conditions continue.
Where does ‘tradition’ leave the elephant?
Elephants have occupied a prominent place in India’s cultural history.
They were used by royalty, featured in art and architecture, and employed in warfare because of their strength. Across historic sites, paintings and frescos show elephants dressed in elaborate decorations.
Over centuries, that history has created an enduring association between elephants, grandeur and human ceremony.
Tourism today has the opportunity to respond to what we now understand about elephants’ physical and behavioural needs.
Geeta Seshamani, co-founder of Wildlife SOS, tells The Better India, “Tradition cannot become a justification for cruelty.”
“The challenge is changing people’s mindset. Elephants have been part of our cultural traditions for centuries. They are used in temples, but cultural significance does not take away their physical and behavioural needs. We have to learn to separate our traditions from practices that cause suffering to captive elephants.”
At Amer Fort, fewer tourists are choosing the ride
There are signs that visitor behaviour can change.
At Jaipur’s Amer Fort, official figures show that elephant rides have declined substantially from their pre-pandemic levels.
According to data cited by tourism stakeholders, 1,08,378 tourists took elephant rides in 2019-20. After the pandemic disrupted tourism, numbers eventually climbed again, reaching 79,090 in 2023-24 and 67,018 in 2024-25, before falling to 48,474 in 2025-26.
The campaign has used information campaigns, petitions and advertising aimed at tourists travelling through India’s Golden Triangle of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. Photograph: (Wildlife SOS)
Tourism industry stakeholders have attributed the decline to factors including fewer foreign tourists and changing visitor preferences.
Wildlife SOS launched its RefuseToRide campaign in 2018 to help accelerate that shift.
The campaign has used information campaigns, petitions and advertising aimed at tourists travelling through India’s Golden Triangle of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur.
At one point, its message appeared on train headrests on the Gatimaan Express and on Jaipur’s auto-rickshaws, reaching travellers before they arrived at destinations where elephant rides were offered.
The idea behind those messages is simple: a traveller’s decision is made before they climb onto the elephant.
So, what choice will you make?
For a tourist, the first step is to refuse the ride.
That can begin before a holiday itinerary is finalised. Travellers can ask a hotel or tour operator whether elephant rides, performances or close-contact experiences are included in a trip. They can choose wildlife experiences that allow animals to remain animals rather than turning them into attractions.
A traveller cannot change everything that has already happened to a captive elephant. They can decide whether their money helps keep that experience in demand.
For me, that choice still returns to the question I asked my grandfather as a child.
If we are guests in the elephants’ home, perhaps one of the most important things we can do is think about what our visit asks of them.
