Indian elephant hospital and conservation centre that provides sanctuary for 32 rescued animals offers educational tours and volunteer working holidays
- The Wildlife SOS Elephant Hospital Campus, and nearby Elephant Conservation and Care Centre, give love and affection to elephants who have had horrific pasts
- Visitors can take 90-minute educational tours at the elephant centre or volunteer on a working holiday, where they help with tasks and learn about the animals
Tara is leaning sideways on a mud pile. A man hovers over her clutching a large rasp, a metal tool that looks like an oversized cheese grater. Beads of sweat cover his forehead.
After all, an elephant manicure takes some muscle.
When it’s over, Tara accepts a handful of peanuts and fruit as a treat. A few minutes earlier, a team of vets gently took an X-ray of her elbow. The scan shows joint damage, probably caused by kneeling on concrete surfaces.
Tara is one of 32 rescued elephants housed between India’s only elephant hospital, the Wildlife SOS Elephant Hospital Campus, and the nearby 20-acre Elephant Conservation and Care Centre, both on the outskirts of Mathura, a city three hours’ drive from India’s capital, New Delhi.
“Each of them has a history of abuse and captivity,” says Kartick Satyanarayan, CEO and co-founder of Wildlife SOS, a non-profit wildlife conservation group that runs the hospital. “We only have the opportunity to give them the last few years of love and affection. Once an elephant is removed from its herd and turned domestic, it cannot return to the wild.”
Tara, 25, was rescued in 2023 from a life of begging, starvation and walking countless hours on concrete roads. Dermatitis and colic disease caused her immense pain and appetite loss.
