Nepal was already home to the tallest mountain on Earth, but now it can boast something even better than that: elephant football.
There’s definitely a running theme to the annual Chitwan Festival, 150 miles from Mount Everest. Among the activities at the five-day event are elephant walks, elephant polo, elephant painting, an elephant picnic and, intriguingly, an elephant beauty contest. Basically, the Nepalese love an elephant. It was only a matter of time, then, until someone came up with the bright idea of giving them a football and watching them play.
Elephant football began in 2008 and has really caught on, attracting a crowd of 20,000 this year – more than Lazio’s average gate in Rome.
Baby elephants from the nearby national park are trained by riders, or mahouts, for…