Elephant polo, India
Elephant polo is a team sport to which elephants and people participate. It was first played in India at the beginning of the twentieth century. Nowadays, elephant polo is mostly played in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Elephant polo can be compared to normal polo. Polo is derived from the Tibetan word pulu, meaning "root". Polo is named after the first balls of willow wood are made.
The World Elephant Polo Association (WEPA) was founded in Nepal in 1982. WEPA is the world's leading elephant polo organization. This organization manages almost all elephant polo competitions. The sport is very popular with locals as well as tourists. Rules of the game
Each team has four elephants. There are three elephants in the field and one in the goal. Each elephant has a mahout (temmer) and a player. The referees are sitting on a wooden terrace on the back of a big elephant standing along the sidelines. Some elephants seem to understand the game. They then strike the ball themselves in the right direction or they are going to find out without the tamer pushing them. Sometimes they throw the ball with their trick in the goal but that is against the rules of the game. The game has two play halves each about a quarter. The play halves are called chukkahs.
The playing field is 70 at 100 yards, which is smaller than a horse polar field, because elephants do not go as fast as horses. The sticks are called mallets, which are 98 to 110 inches tall, depending on the size of the elephant. The sticks are longer than horses, because horses are smaller; with horse polo the sticks are only 51 inches long.
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