Victory! Wave of Sponsors Cut Ties With Chitwan Elephant Festival After Push From PETA

Move comes after Bollywood star John Abraham calls for end of festival

Chitwan – In a significant win for elephants, the cruel Chitwan Elephant Festival has lost all of its major sponsors, with more than half a dozen companies severing ties and pledging not to support it in the future after hearing from PETA. The companies include Pepsi, BYD, Nepal Investment Mega Bank (NIMB), Buddha Air, Mahalaxmi Bikas Bank, NLG Insurance, TechMinds Network, and Manakamana Darshan.

The move comes after PETA informed the companies’ leadership that elephants at the festival are beaten into submission by handlers, who repeatedly strike and jab the animals with sticks and makeshift wooden knives to force them to “play” football.

PETA released disturbing video footage showing one handler jabbing, kicking, and beating an elephant at least 64 times in full view of the public. When not being forced to perform during the festival, the elephants were also beaten, including some with bullhooks, while waiting or being used as photo props for tourists visiting Chitwan. One mahout was seen smiling as he repeatedly stabbed an elephant with a sharpened stick, and another elbowed a curious baby elephant in the face.

In communications with PETA, each of the companies condemned the festival’s exploitation of elephants, including Pepsi, which said it was contacting festival organisers. Meanwhile, TechMinds Network stated that it stands “firmly with PETA’s campaign advocating for animal rights and welfare”, and NIMB stated that it is “always committed to stand against such animal abuse and cruelty”.

“These companies rightly decided that they didn’t want their names attached to this abusive event, which forces tormented elephants to play games for human amusement,” says PETA Senior Vice President Jason Baker. “PETA is calling on festival organisers to read the writing on the wall, spare elephants from suffering, and end this cruel spectacle.”

In nature, elephants live in matriarchal herds, protect one another, and share mothering responsibilities for the herds’ babies. But elephants in captivity are deprived of everything natural and important to them and often exhibit obsessive, repetitive behaviour indicative of severe psychological distress.

In the lead-up to the latest festival, actor and film producer John Abraham sent an urgent letter to Badri Prasad Pandey, Nepal’s minister of culture, tourism and civil aviation, urging him to end the abuse of animals at the festival.

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