Tesso Nilo National Park, Riau, Sumatra

Far away from everything on the island of Sumatra lies Tesso Nilo National Park, a wildlife hotspot and now an elephant sanctuary as well. The entire park sprawls out over 100,000 hectares, with a portion of it converted solely into an elephant sanctuary. Elephants, here, have free rein to go where they want and do what they want. You won’t find any chains or drugs here! In fact the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) works directly with the management of the national park and helps educate the nearby local communities on the importance of forest conservation and sustainable tourism.

While filming a tourism video in Sumatra, we spent time here getting to know the elephants. Ten years ago, human-elephant conflicts were a rising problem in Riau, and many elephants were killed as a result. Though conflicts with humans are decreasing, poachers still remain a threat. As a result, tame elephants from endangered areas are being transported to Tesso Nilo. Currently, the park has more than 150 elephants of all ages.