Chiang Mai University’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine is opening a new elephant hospital next door in Mae Taeng district later this month, part of an ongoing push to upgrade care for the province’s elephant population.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chatchote Thitaram, director of the Elephant and Wildlife Health Centre, announced the opening at the province’s 24th media briefing of the year. The new building, officially the Elephant Hospital, Elephant and Wildlife Health Centre (Kanchana Sillapa-archa Building), will hold its opening ceremony on Saturday, September 26, from 8am to noon, at the centre’s site in Mae Taeng.
The hospital sits on roughly 26 rai in an area with a large concentration of elephant camps and sanctuaries, and was built with a 49.25 million baht donation from Kanchana Sillapa-archa, covering construction and the facilities needed to run it. Beyond treating sick elephants, Chatchote said the centre is meant to double as a teaching and research site, offering training for veterinary students and staff and contributing to the broader pool of knowledge on elephant and wildlife health, something he framed as an investment in the next generation of people who’ll actually be doing this work.
The faculty is inviting the public to follow along with the opening events, which organizers are positioning as another step in Chiang Mai’s efforts to build up its veterinary and wildlife health infrastructure, an area where the province already has a fairly established reputation given CMU’s existing elephant research programs.
