Plans are afoot to get elephants out of Thailand's concrete jungles

Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayodhin said regulations needed to be amended to deal with mahouts who refuse to cooperate.

Police bribes

The BMA-led strategy has the support of Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation (FAEF) and the Animal Protection Foundation and Apirak said he was seeking cooperation from other relevant agencies.

The FAEF secretarygeneral said she believed that success in tackling the problem in Bangkok would set an example to local authorities in the provinces.

Senator Warin Jiamjaras said that municipal police officers received bribes from mahouts in return for allowing them to take elephants to beg on even the most crowded of Bangkok streets.