Nepal: At annual Mammoth Festival, elephants compete in a penalty shootout
Nepal: In the tourist town of Sauraha, Nepal, elephants participated in a penalty shootout game on Friday as part of the Himalayan nation’s annual elephant festival.
Hundreds of people watched as the elephants marched through the streets from the entrance of Chitwan National Park to the festival site, where they competed in a penalty shootout.
This year’s 19th edition of the Elephant and Tourism Festival brought back the penalty shootout competition, which had been absent for a number of years due to protests from animal rights groups.
This year, Sauraha, a popular tourist location in Chitwan, redesigned its tourism campaign with the goal of boosting both tourism and elephant conservation.
“People from all across the country have been drawn to Chitwan for the elephant festival. For both of us and the guests that come here, it is a celebration. We established elephant football, thus this festival has to be conducted once a year. Tomorrow, there will be a three-day beauty pageant. “Everything is happy and pleasant,” Sauraha’s elephant caregiver, Sante Mahato, told ANI.
The celebration will go through Monday in Sauraha’s Baghmara Buffer Zone Community Forest.
The main goal of the event, according to its organizers, is to boost the number of visitors to Sauraha from both local and foreign countries. Hoteliers anticipate that during the festival time, hotel occupancy in the region will increase to around 60% from its current rate of about 40%.
Hotels and restaurants in Sauraha have offered a number of food and lodging offers during the festival in an effort to attract more guests.
“It’s really amazing that the community is coming together and people work with the elephants and the amazing stuff they do, which is pretty cool,” John, a visitor from England, told ANI.
Throughout the festival, a variety of cultural, athletic, and entertainment events are planned. An elephant penalty shootout competition, a parade from Chitwan National Park’s entry gate, and a number of cultural events took place on the first day.
Live elephant beauty pageants with traditional music, an elephant health camp, interaction programs, boat races, other sporting events, and cultural performances with folk songs and dances will all take place on the second day of the festival.
According to the organizers, the last day will include an elephant worship service, an elephant picnic, the announcement of the outcomes of several contests, the awarding of diplomas and prizes, the formal closing ceremony, and a cultural performance in the evening.
In addition to boosting Sauraha tourism, the festival’s organizers want to raise awareness of local culture, biodiversity, and elephant conservation on a national and worldwide scale.