Key Achievements

In its fourth year, VFAES has expanded its scope to address issues directly related to protecting wild and captive elephants on the ground as follows (images for our projects attached):

​

• The Kerala Corridor Project to purchase a two-acre plot of land, surpassed the funding goal of $50,000, raising $54,000 in June 2020 through crowdsourcing. Land purchase is underway and corridor is expected to be created by mid-2021 (depending on the COVID-19 situation)

​

• A groundbreaking youth empowerment pilot program—Project Asian Elephants 101 (PAE101) was provided in April 2019, with Student Police Cadets (SPC) graduating, and receiving “Elephant Ambassador” certificates. Based on its success, the Inspector General of Police has invited VFAES to conduct PAE101 in three additional districts

​

• Project Captive Elephant Rehabilitation was held in October 2019 to train and encourage elephant handlers to implement positive reinforcement methods in handling captive elephants at the Kottoor Elephant Rehabilitation Center run by Kerala Forest Department (KFD) with positive reviews from handlers, and plans to repeat the program in other government camps

​

• The Gentle Giant Summit was held in collaboration with the Kerala Forest Department in November 2019, aiming to foster interagency collaboration within the government ministries, using systems thinking principles

​

• VFAES garnered the Platinum Seal of Transparency from GuideStar consistently in 2018, 2019 & 2020, after rigorous vetting of standards for trust and community support

​