Elephant polo
The elephant polo is a sport that the polo but with similar, Indian elephant is played. Compared to regular polo, the game phases called “chukka” are shorter, the playing sticks are longer and the playing field is smaller.
The international association of players, the World Elephant Polo Association (WEPA), was founded in 1982 in the Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge resort in Chitwan National Park . Since then, the association has organized tournaments in Nepal , Sri Lanka and Thailand . The one-week world championship tournaments are held annually in November / December at the Meghauly airfield on the edge of the Chitwan National Park. In 2009 this tournament took place for the first time on the edge of the Bardia National Park .
Most of the participating teams are international with players from Great Britain , India , Hong Kong , Sri Lanka , Thailand , Australia and Switzerland . Only the Nepal National Parks team consists of Nepalese players.
As a rule, 16 elephants take part in the tournaments, some of which are subordinate to the national park and some to the respective host. The tournaments are only held in the morning so that the elephants can rest in the afternoon. In the game, the elephants are steered by a mahout while the player holds on to a straw-filled cushion behind him and tries to shoot the polo ball into the opposing team's goal with a 2 - 3 m long stick.
Rules of the game
According to the rules of the game agreed by WEPA, the games are played on a 100–120 m × 70 m field and regular polo balls (7–8 cm, 130 g in weight) are used. Two teams play against each other, and each team sends 4 players into play. However, only 3 players per team play in Thailand and Sri Lanka. Experienced polo players are considered handicapped .
A game consists of two 10-minute chukkas, which are kicked off and ended by a referee . The breaks between chukkas last 15 minutes. For the second chukka, the elephants are exchanged and, as is usual with many ball games , the direction of play is changed.
After each game, the elephants are given sugar cane or concentrated feed and water packed with molasses , rice and salt to strengthen their strength .
criticism
Criticism of the game comes mainly from animal rights activists who criticize the methods of keeping and training animals. After protests by animal rights activists and animal rights activists , the Guinness Book of Records has removed all entries relating to elephant polo.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Elephant Polo: Controversial Sport in Nepal. In: tagesspiegel.de. December 6, 16, accessed March 4, 2020 .
- ↑ AFP (2011) Guinness Book Cancels Elephant Polo Records