Elephant safari ridership falls 70% in seven years, operators alarmed

At a big old fort in Jaipur, India, called Amer Fort, people used to ride elephants up the hill like a special adventure.

A lot of tourists loved doing this, and in one year almost 165,000 people rode the elephants.

But now, seven years later, only about 48,000 people take elephant rides.

That is a drop of about 70 percent.

Part of the reason is that the COVID-19 sickness kept people at home for a while, and fewer rides happened then.

Another reason is that many visitors, especially from other countries, now care more about animal welfare and do not want to ride elephants.

Some travel companies have even taken elephant rides out of their tour packages.

People who take care of the elephants are worried because feeding one elephant costs about 4,000 rupees a day.

If fewer people ride, it is harder to pay for the elephants' food and care.

The news came out just before World Elephant Day, which is on August 12, a day to remember to protect elephants.