Elephant polo

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Elephant polo is polo played on elephants. It is mainly played in Nepal and Thailand, with teams from England and Scotland sometimes taking part. The game uses a standard polo ball and long sticks with a mallet head at the end, about 1.8 to 3 meters long. Two people ride each elephant: a mahout who steers the elephant, and a player who directs the mahout and hits the ball. The field is shorter than a regular polo pitch because elephants move more slowly.

Elephant polo began in Meghauli, Nepal. The World Elephant Polo Association (WEPA) runs the sport in Nepal and Thailand and enforces welfare rules. The World Elephant Polo Championships are held at Tiger Tops in Nepal. Some tournaments in India and Sri Lanka are independent of WEPA. Sri Lanka had an annual tournament in Galle, which ended in 2007 after an elephant damaged cars.

There have been accusations of cruel treatment by animal-rights groups, leading to cancellations, sponsorship losses, and the removal of elephant polo records from Guinness World Records. In October 2018, the Thailand Elephant Polo Association announced it would end polo matches in Thailand, where a tournament had been held at the Anantara Hotel Bangkok.