To be exact the number is 78 and all these elephants at the Maesa elephant camp in Chiang Mai were freed from having to carry heavy wooden and metal chairs used to carry tourists for elephant rides.
The elephants at the camp in northern Thailand have been used for elephant rides for tourists for over 40 years. There was a plan already that the park will phase out elephant riding, but with the Covid-19 pandemic, which drastically reduced demand for the attraction from tourists, accelerated those plans.
According to CNN, the park was closed on Monday, March 23, after they saw a steep decline from hundreds of tourists a day to less than 20.
With the disruption in business, the company will change its business model and allow the elephants to roam freely in the premises, where visitors will be able to observe them.
As per reported by the Business Insider, elephants used for tourism have been mistreated as they have been chained, pierced with bull hooks and placed under physical and mental stress. With this pandemic in place, it actually relieve the locked up elephants