Elephant Ride in Munnar 

A recent visit to Munnar marked my debut with God’s own country Kerala. It was a short trip and I had very little time to go around and explore the scenic Munnar. Munnar is beautiful beyond words. Green all around to soothe your eyes, fresh cool breeze to cleanse your lungs and the perfect nip in the air to rejuvenate your body, that is Munnar in a nutshell. While tripping amid lush green tea plantation and drinking coconut water we came across an adventure site which was offering Elephant rides.

Also Read: Exploring Munnar In A Day !

I was ecstatic and in a fraction of second I knew I wanted take that Elephant ride. Unaware of the ensuing revelation, I bought the ticket. A friend accompanied me for the ride. Just when they called our ticket number I got that “this is not right” feeling. I went ahead and took my seat anyways. There were around 5-6 Elephants going for the spin at a time. Just as we made ourselves comfortable on the Elephant the trainer gave him a tight one with a think stick. That was the signal for the Elephant to start the ride. In no time he again beat the Elephant and this time it was harder than before. The Elephant started moving and that’s when I realized I shouldn’t have done this at all.

Saying no to Elephant ride going further 

On every step up and turn the trainer kept saying something in his local language and kept beating the Elephant. All the ride I felt guilty and kept telling myself “I am never doing this again”. It was a slow and bumpy ride and I wanted it to end as early as possible. The ride lasted for approximately fifteen minutes and trust me that was the longest fifteen minutes ever. All along the ride I kept telling myself “this wasn’t required”. This ride wasn’t required.

Maybe the Elephants are very strong and maybe it didn’t hurt them but it didn’t feel right to me. I was having a good time and in the quest of making the time a little better I have hurt an animal. It is a source of income for locals. I saw that they took good care of the Elephants as well. They were feeding them properly and some of them were resting as well. It could be all fine from that angle but it didn’t reason very well with my guilt.

I cannot take back what I did but I am certainly not proud of it. That very moment I decided that this was the last Elephant ride of my life.

PS: My visit to Munnar was with Club Mahindra as a part of #DreamTrail project. Watch out them for their #DreamTrail season 2 which is going to be out soon.

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