Elephant Breeding Centre
Elephant Breeding Centre
Elephant Breeding Centre
3
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Does not meet animal welfare
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Tripadvisor does not provide bookings for this experience because it does not meet our animal welfare guidelines.
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
Popular mentions
3.0
703 reviews
Excellent
169
Very good
152
Average
130
Poor
67
Terrible
185
HomerJSimpson01
Springfield, OR482 contributions
Mar 2019 • Couples
This place will be distressing to most visitors. Elephants over 2 years old with one leg chained to a post only 5 metres long. Watching them go through repetitive movement as they can not go far is not good. All in the name of being trained to obey. How can anyone think this is acceptable??????
Written March 12, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Radhika285
London45 contributions
Aug 2014
When you get there read the board about how the elephants are trained and notice how sad they look chained up with no where to walk. When they are swaying they aren't dancing, it's a sign they are distressed.
If anyone is visiting soon, I would greatly appreciate if you can upload a photo of the board describing the methods used to train the elephants. I wish I had taken a photo so I could dissuade others in supporting this industry that harms these beautiful animals.
If anyone is visiting soon, I would greatly appreciate if you can upload a photo of the board describing the methods used to train the elephants. I wish I had taken a photo so I could dissuade others in supporting this industry that harms these beautiful animals.
Written August 13, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Dgkkhfr
Australian Capital Territory, Australia4 contributions
Jan 2014
Very sad to see the elephants in these conditions being trained for a sad tourist trade. Please do not go and support this centre, or the elephant safari. This is not a conservation based establishment, it is a domestication and training facility for the elephants used in work situations. Saddened by the visit there seeing chained bored restless elephants.
Written January 7, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Angyvo
Montreal, Canada163 contributions
Dec 2019 • Couples
Seeing the animal chained and lined up was heartbreaking. They seem like they where looking for food and neglected. They should be in the wilderness.
Written December 25, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
fareastjim
Hong Kong, China425 contributions
Sep 2019 • Couples
This was part of our package tour although we requested nothing with elephants. The adult elephants were chained and were pacing. It was very very sad.
We would advise anyone to give this place a very wide berth.
We would advise anyone to give this place a very wide berth.
Written October 14, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hurryup2011
Koriana, Greece75 contributions
Dec 2017 • Friends
A elephant enormous animals I don't know about breading elephant. When i visit this place really looking imagine. Nice place . visit again
Written August 12, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Laura S
2 contributions
Aug 2018 • Couples
We visited this place in combination with a boattrip. We were under the impression this place was a good initiative that protected baby elephant that lost their mother but instead the elephants have to work from the age to 55! This center 'trains' the elephants for their 'working career'. I feel bad visiting this place, I dont want to support any of this. The elephants where chained, their ivory has been cut of and they have very little to no space to move around. Most of the little elephants are seperated from their mothers. They don 't make a happy impression at all. Please dont go there, its more than a waste of money.
Written August 6, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Sonnie M
Madison, WI19 contributions
Oct 2017 • Couples
We know that balancing conservation and tourism is an incredibly difficult challenge. I don't know how this is a good thing or why it is a tourist destination. This "tour" was booked as part of a package deal through Earthbound Expeditions. We didn't know we were going here, and were most hesitant to go. We felt bad our money supported this.
When you walk through the "information" center they EXPLICITLY tell you that the baby elephants are taken from their mothers, socially isolated, deprived food water and sleep, then they have their heads tied to a post and have fire held to their skin to "desensitize them." They make an effort to say it is okay because afterward they are given a massage. Someone took a pen and wrote "this is B.S." and "torture" above some of the photos and it wasn't removed which we thought was noteworthy. The elephants are in chains and are rocking back in forth which is clearly a sign of mental distress. They tell you that they are "exercising."
I understand that the Nepali military uses elephants for patrolling the jungle. I understand that elephants are ridden by tourists, but they sit up to 5 people on these elephants. I think it is an unnecessary activity that perpetuates the capture and captivity of wild elephants. If they are only getting 1 calf every 22 months it doesn't seem worth it to keep all the others chained up. You can even see scars on their foreheads from where they are beaten and stabbed by mahout tools. It was a very unsettling experience.
There is other options to just walk with elephants that are being rescued from painful riding lives. I would recommend you inquire at your hotel about it.
When you walk through the "information" center they EXPLICITLY tell you that the baby elephants are taken from their mothers, socially isolated, deprived food water and sleep, then they have their heads tied to a post and have fire held to their skin to "desensitize them." They make an effort to say it is okay because afterward they are given a massage. Someone took a pen and wrote "this is B.S." and "torture" above some of the photos and it wasn't removed which we thought was noteworthy. The elephants are in chains and are rocking back in forth which is clearly a sign of mental distress. They tell you that they are "exercising."
I understand that the Nepali military uses elephants for patrolling the jungle. I understand that elephants are ridden by tourists, but they sit up to 5 people on these elephants. I think it is an unnecessary activity that perpetuates the capture and captivity of wild elephants. If they are only getting 1 calf every 22 months it doesn't seem worth it to keep all the others chained up. You can even see scars on their foreheads from where they are beaten and stabbed by mahout tools. It was a very unsettling experience.
There is other options to just walk with elephants that are being rescued from painful riding lives. I would recommend you inquire at your hotel about it.
Written October 21, 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Kristen A
Baltimore, MD27 contributions
Jun 2015 • Couples
We read that the elephant breeding center would be more humane than the elephant safari but that turned out not to be true. If you actually read the posters in the Welcome Center/museum part of the elephant breeding center you will read about how they train the elephant calves. This is what the poster said: the take the baby from the mother when the baby is very young, they tie him to a wooden post, bind his feet together and hold fire very close to his skin to toughen his skin for training. It actually said this in the welcome center, with no embarrassment or shame!! My husband and I were disgusted by this so we asked our tour guide who said that yes, it's true, and that a few years ago a baby elephant died during its training, causing some public outcry so now they're possibly thinking about changing some aspects of training, but that it remains to be seen.
The male elephants are chained to a wood stump with a chain that is not more than 2 feet long so they can't move at all. On the males, the leg with the chain is physically deformed - the tightness of the chain has prevented bone growth so the bone in their chained legs is visibly curved around the chain. In the welcome center you learn that Nepal has been using elephants for their benefit/profit for thousands of years and that
the elephants that are bred in this center are not bred necessarily for conservation purposes. The welcome center said that once they are trained, they get sold into the workforce as beasts of burden, for tourists in the elephant safari, to India, etc. This breeding center does not seem to be a philanthropic or humanitarian venture, but rather Nepal preserving an important economic tool that is dying out. If you love elephants, don't come here, it's just sad and depressing.
The male elephants are chained to a wood stump with a chain that is not more than 2 feet long so they can't move at all. On the males, the leg with the chain is physically deformed - the tightness of the chain has prevented bone growth so the bone in their chained legs is visibly curved around the chain. In the welcome center you learn that Nepal has been using elephants for their benefit/profit for thousands of years and that
the elephants that are bred in this center are not bred necessarily for conservation purposes. The welcome center said that once they are trained, they get sold into the workforce as beasts of burden, for tourists in the elephant safari, to India, etc. This breeding center does not seem to be a philanthropic or humanitarian venture, but rather Nepal preserving an important economic tool that is dying out. If you love elephants, don't come here, it's just sad and depressing.
Written July 6, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
jodieshiel19
YORKSHIRE34 contributions
Apr 2015 • Couples
We arrived at Chitwan on am ugh excited to see the wildlife and visit the the national park. We cycled happily off to the breeding centre excited to see the elephants. Sadly when we arrived our mood changed to one of sadness seeing these amazing creatures chained up and some looking like they we're going insane! This is not a conservation project as I had visioned in my head. This is a centre for working elephants who are beaten from age 2/3 into submission. They are penned in behind electric fences and some are chained so they can barely move. In the entrance there is information about the "fascinating training methods" and tools used to train them. There is nothing fascinating about taking baby elephants away from their mothers and beating them, tying them u up and starving them. If you look at the adult elephant's heads you can see marks where they have been hit with sticks. I felt so sad coming away from this place and ashamed I had contributed to it by paying in.
Written April 22, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Waarom mishandelen jullie olifanten en waarom ketenen Jullie de olifanten zo strak vast dat deze niet kunnen bewegen?
Written October 31, 2024
Hello. I'm planning to stay in Kathmandu. How far is this place from Kathmandu? Are there restaurants around?
Written March 7, 2018
A long way on poor roads. Did not notice any restaurants nearby, you would find these in Chitwan town.
Written March 12, 2018
Last year one of the elephant birth produced 2 babies at a time. They are growing up OK. This was the first time ever happened in all the breeding centers in the world.
Written January 13, 2018
Help i am very confused! Hoping someone can help :)
We are flying from Perth WA and would like to know the best way to get in and out Huay xai for the gibbon experience. We have booked for 28sept.
Thanks
liz
Written May 19, 2015
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*Likely to sell out: Based on Viator’s booking data and information from the provider from the past 30 days, it seems likely this experience will sell out through Viator, a Tripadvisor company.
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