An elephant camp has switched to dung fertiliser production to survive the coronavirus lockdown after revenues plunged.<br /><br />Footage from the Mae Rim camp in Chaing Mai, northern Thailand shows the mahouts collecting dung from the elephants so they can compost them to make fertiliser. <br /><br />The camp's owner, Panthong Sa-ardsri, said it is all he could do to help pay the bills after the COVID-19 decimated its income.<br /><br />He said: "We only have four elephants and a few staff. Most of them have chosen to go back to their home towns but there are still two mahouts that could not go home because of the lockdown.<br /><br />"I want to support them as much as I can, but I do not have much money not that tourism has been suspended. I let them collect the elephants' dung to make fertiliser for selling and the proceeds are helping to pay them.''<br /><br />Thailand's elephant camp community, which relied entirely on tourism, has been badly hit by the restrictions on travel put in place to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
