Ethical Elephant Tourism: Wildlife SOS, Agra

I’ve just arrived in Jaipur having finished two week’s volunteering at the charity Wildlife SOS. I’d initially booked one week but from day one I knew I needed to spend more time at this remarkable project, amongst remarkable elephants and remarkable people.

But I also learnt quickly how unprepared I was for the elephants’ backstories. I had known – even in India where elephants are revered, worshipped – that the abuse of and cruelty to captive elephants is common and widespread. Even so...