elephant polo
elephant polo
The (WEPA)
World Elephant
Polo Championships
by Jane Poretsis
It is an invitational event, arranged by Tiger
Tops and run under the strict rules of WEPA ,
which regulates the game and enforces strict
rules regarding elephant welfare.
Approximately 16 elephants participate in the
WEPA Championships every year; half of the
elephants belong to the Nepalese National
Parks and half to Tiger Tops. Most of the rules
of the game are based on horse polo, but
the pitch is 3/4 length (because of the slower
speed of the elephants – and not to tire them),
around 100 x 70 m.
Held the end of November, over a week
(this year: 27th November – 2nd December,
2011); the game is divided into three levels:
the Quarter Final, the Semi-Final and the
Grand-Finale. With teams from all over the
World; such as: Nepal, UK, Scotland, India,
Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Australia,
America, Switzerland, etc., competing to win
the Championship.
Two people ride each elephant, the mahout
who steers the elephant (it helps if you can
speak Nepali – as that is the language they
understand, plus they have a bond going back
years) and the player who hits the ball. Players
are also secured in rope harnesses, with a
rope across their thighs and rope stirrups;
players have fallen off elephants only a few
times in WEPA’s 20-year history, and it’s a
long way to fall!
Split in to two groups: League A and League
B, each have four teams (eight all together)
with exciting names like: Pukkas Chukkas,
Tiger Tops Tuskers (Kristjan Edwards’s home
team), Tickle and the Ivories, Indian Tigers
(who used to be known as The Tigress’s),
British Gorkha Gladiators, etc.
This year’s main sponsor will be EFG
Switzerland.
After the first 10 minute chukka, there is a
break for 15 minutes to allow the elephants a
rest, after which the players change sides and
elephants.
During the game there are strict rules against
any harsh treatment of the elephants (ankuses
are banned – an old Indian hook used to
control elephants). The games also end at
Noon so they don’t get too hot; they are also
not allowed to play consecutive games. Half
time is also snack time, with an hours rest.
Sugar cane or rice balls packed with vitamins
(molasses and rock salt) are given to the
elephants (and special
sandwiches) at the end of the match, and a
cold beer or soft drinks for the mahouts (but
not visa versa).
Each game consists of two 10 minute chukkas
(using special polo sticks varying in length up
to 102 inches).
Now 10 minutes may not seem like a long
time to you and me, but for the elephant that
is enough, and that is what is really important.
Deep in the heart of the steamy Nepalese jungle; the Himalayas rising up to form
a blindingly magnificent backdrop, lies the home to one of the world’s most unique
sports. Elephant polo!
D
eep in the heart of the steamy Nepalese
jungle; the Himalayas rising up to form a
blindingly magnificent backdrop, lies the
home to one of the world’s most unique sports.
Elephant polo!
The idea was famously launched in a bar in
St Moritz, Switzerland, by James Manclark
a Scottish landowner and former Olympic
tobogganer and Jim Edwards, the owner of
Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge (www.tigertops.com)
– where they were both members of the Cresta
Club.
It went something like this: Manclark, “My wife
was sitting next to us and she said, ‘He’s quite
a nice man and he’s got elephants.’” Edwards
remembered James turning to him and saying,
24 Himalayas | July-OCT 2011
“You got elephants, let’s play polo.” Jim replied,
“Buy me a drink and we can play.” James
bought him quite a few. Back in Nepal, Edwards
received a telegram from Manclark on the 1st of
April that read: “Have long sticks. Get elephants
ready, arriving on Indian Airlines 1st April.
regards, James”. This naturally left Jim in a
quandary was this, the Scotsman’s idea of an
April fool’s joke, or was he serious? He decided
to have a field prepared in Meghauly and the
elephants, just in case. Much to his surprize,
James showed up with not only his wife
Patricia, but also a bunch of eager players.
Elephant polo was born; the date, 1982.
According to Jim, the first game was pretty
chaotic: ‘The field was so big, it took a whole
day to score one goal, and the foot balls that
James thought we could use, were crushed by
the elephants!’
It was decided to replace the foot balls with a
standard polo ball.
They registered the World Elephant Polo
Association (WEPA www.elephantpolo.com)
with the Sports Council; with the added hope
that if ever the Olympics came to Nepal, they
could enter Elephant Polo.
Tiger Tops Lodge remains the Headquarters
of WEPA and the annual World Elephant Polo
Championships are held just outside Meghauly
village on the original polo field, a strip adjacent
to Meghauly airport on the edge of the Chitwan
National Park.
www.himalayasnepal.com
www.himalayasnepal.com
25 Himalayas | July-OCT 2011
elephant polo
elephant polo
WEPA Chairman Peter Prentice reading from a letter by the late Jim Edwards - regarding
elephant polo players.
James Manclark, WEPA co-founder, ex-Chairman and Honorary Life President of WEPA, receives his 71st
birthday cake during the 29TH World Elephant Polo Championships.
At 71, James Manclark (co-founder of WEPA
with Jim) became the oldest player in the
history of the sport to become a World
Champion as part of EFG Switzerland team
– his 5th World Title; on his birthday (3rd
December).
Fund-raising is an important element to
the games: the Pukka Chukkas (www.
pukkachukkas.com) raised over $7,500
with an MS Bicycle Polo Tournament, held
after the Championship - 8 teams took to
the field for 15 games of ‘frenetic action’,
with Afghaniphants ‘triumphing’. The 10
bikes bought were then shared between
the ITNC (who used them for checking and
placing camera traps for tiger monitoring/
conservation) and local villages.
The BBC came out in 2008, with Bushall
interviewing Jim Edwards. To summarize,
it was shown how the games have helped
transform many people’s lives ‘here’, and is
part of a greater conservation project, creating
thousands of jobs. The money paid by teams
to enter, help build the schools and healthcare
in the villages, where malaria once threatened
the children’s lives, and has now virtually been
eradicated.
Social Events and Partying Jungle
Polo Style
Although elephant polo was first played in
India at the beginning of the 20th Century
– possibly as legend has it - by members
of the Maharaja’s harem (Zenena) – to keep
them busy. The modern game and set of
rules originated in Meghauli, Nepal. Some
for instance are necessary additions – for
instance, it is a penalty for an elephant to lie
down in front of the goal line!
Tradition also holds that one group of the
lucky players will spot a tiger leaping out of
the early morning mist, on the way to the polo
field for every tournament.
According to Lucy Monro (Equestrio Arabia),
one player: Jason Freidman declared himself
the ‘happiest man alive’ that ‘nothing else
mattered’ now he had seen a tiger in the wild!
When early one morning as he was been
driven to the polo field with his team, a tiger
leapt out of the misty jungles edge, roaring,
and made a charge at the jeep!
Literally thousands pour into the site every
year, from villages up to 50 km away; school
children whooping with delight and leaping
down from the buses, on bicycles, cars, you
name it. It is a big annual event for them too:
like Wimbledon or the World Cup, or Super
Bowl! It’s theirs and they love it. While they
sit around the pitch cheering their favourite
teams, the VIP guests take their seats in front
of the player’s tents.
26 Himalayas | July-OCT 2011
As Monro says: It brings both a dedicated and
wonderfully eccentric group of entrepreneurs,
businessmen, bankers, hoteliers, polo players
and supporters together each year in one
of the most remote and startlingly beautiful
places on Earth – to play a game about which
all who take part have such a passion!
Ringo Starr has played it, and so have Steven
Segal, Stephanie Powers and the 13th Duke
of Argyll!!
The players have great names too, like Peter
‘Powerhouse’ Prentice Chairman of WEPA
and Captain of the Chivas Regal team; Chief
‘Eighteen’ Wheeler – Captain and founder of
the Pukka Chukkas (the Chief lists his hobbies
as elephant polo, curry & beer – but not
necessarily in that order) and Melanie ‘Snorty
Pukka’ Wheeler (her hobbies are listed as
demolition, chocolate and hugging elephants).
EFG Switzerland was crowned Elephant
Polo World Champions, at last year’s 29th
Championship, with a golden goal finish over
the UAE SEPOYs With EFGs: ‘golden boy and
king of private banking – Robert Mehm’.
The Pukka Chukkas winning the WEPA
Bronze Quaiche and Best Dressed Team. They
also raised $7,500.00 split between the MS
Society and the ITNC (The International Trust
for Nature – set up in memory of Jim Edwards
who sadly passed away in 2009. www.itnc.
org).
Last year 2010, the BBC came out again
with Joanna Jolly interviewing Peter Prentice
the Chairman of the WEPA (www.bbc.co.uk/
news/world-south-asia-11921442) where
she asked Prentice how elephant polo differs
from normal polo. He went on to mention
that they were also all there to support
elephant conservation and raise money
for the local community (raising recently,
$200,000 in Thailand). Asked if the elephants
enjoyed playing, Prentice said: ‘Well the
thing with elephants, the one thing you can
be sure about, if they didn’t enjoy playing
they wouldn’t play, you know, they are big
and strong. They love playing and they are
intelligent animals. During week for week
they get looked after like kings and queens.
They are really spoilt, we feed them beautiful
molasses sandwiches and they only play 2
games each, every day. So we look after them
very carefully and they love people’.
Out-side of the annual championships, the
elephants at Tiger Tops take guests out on
wildlife safaris (which are limited in time).
During the day, the elephants are also taken
out to the fields where their mahouts cut grass
for them and bathe them in the river. They
receive ‘love, attention and communication
and are truly cherished’.
www.himalayasnepal.com
The social events that surround the World
Championships are also unsurpassed.
Throughout the week-long sporting event,
Tiger Tops plays host to social gatherings: safari
soirees at the edge of the jungle and with ‘black
tie and national dress for cocktail parties on the
most beautiful lawn on the planet beyond which
rhino, elephant and tigers roam; before the aweinspiring backdrop of the Himalaya’ (Monro).
Party at Tiger Tops Lodge
The grand finale being the legendary ‘WEPA
Dogleg Dinner Dance’ held in Kathmandu,
before the guests return home. A creation of
Peter Prentice (Chairman of WEPA), back in
1988; and is one of the most glamorous and
sought after invitations in the polo world.
The Asian wild elephant is fast in danger of
becoming a thing of the past, due to shrinking
habitats and loss of natural corridors to roam;
plus, of course as the human population
grows, even if territories are extended and
their numbers thrive – then there are problems
with conflict and destruction of property
and even deaths (bull elephants can be
particularly dangerous – one in particular
has killed 5 people in the Chitwan recently).
The population in the Chitwan National Park
though has risen slightly to around 30 – 40
(from around 20). Herds of wild elephant need
a vast territory. So in some cases integrating
territories where humans and elephants can
www.himalayasnepal.com
live together in harmony could be a good
thing.
Naresh: “I was recently tracking a rhino on
top of a captive elephant, Mahout, which
suddenly gave a sign of danger”, says Naresh.
“While we were looking around I noticed a big
wild bull elephant approaching us. Mahout
and I were very scared as a bull elephant had
already killed five local people in the southern
part of the Chitwan park. Fortunately, the bull
was very gentle and I discovered that it was
not the same animal. He followed us to our
camp and stayed there or the whole night,
together with the captive elephants. We never
tried to disturb him and we kept quiet, which
may have been the reason why he didn’t
attack us. I have still many years to work in
the jungle for conservation and no elephant or
tiger should hurt me!”
Naresh Subedi works for the IUNC Member
organization, National Trust for Nature
Conservation and is involved in rhino tracking
(and other animals) – last year taking part
in a tiger census in the Park, where 125
adult breeding tigers were tracked. He
also supports anti-poaching activities, and
addresses human wildlife conflict issues, and
carries out conservation education work - in
the vicinity of the park.
27 Himalayas | July-OCT 2011