Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary and Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to giving our elephants the best life possible whilst also supporting and providing for our local community. Our aim is to bring elephants home to the forest by working together with the local communities to not only provide a haven for our elephants, but also provide an alternative livelihood for their mahouts, owners and communities. Our elephants have been taken from a life of inadequate care, and we have brought them back to their natural environment where they are living in semi-wild conditions, free to roam as much as possible and live their lives how they choose – interacting and foraging. We provide for our community by creating jobs such as homestays, driving jobs, building jobs and giving them an opportunity to sell their weaving as well as giving them free English lessons both at the school and within the village.
Our beehive project – beehive fencing is a relatively new, innovative and up-and-coming solution to solving human-elephant conflict. At Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary, our elephants are free-roaming during the day and confined at night time. Even with the elephants being confined at night, and the mahouts following their elephants during the day, there is always a risk of the elephants breaking into fields, damaging the local community’s livelihoods and putting humans and themselves at risk. Often pesticides and fertilizer are left behind in the fields, which can be fatal to elephants if ingested. This grant will enable us to set up a community-based beehive fencing program, which will alleviate the need for night time confinement of elephants and keep them, local communities and their livelihoods safe. The program will also generate extra income for the local people who can sell the honey made from the beehives.