Two elephants rescued from a ditch in Thailand
Bangkok, Jul 13 (EFE).- A baby elephant and its mother were rescued Wednesday from a two-meter-deep trench in the vicinity of a national park in Thailand, veterinary officials told EFE.
According to veterinarian Chanannya Karnjanasaka, who assisted in the rescue operation, the one-year-old calf fell into a drainage tube at a hotel complex near Khao Yai National Park, located in northeastern Thailand about 200 kilometers (124 miles) from Bangkok.
Soon after, the mother elephant, aged 10, became “hysterical” and had to be sedated by the doctor, but due to bad weather conditions she also fell into the ditch that was two meters long and three meters wide.
After the three-hour rescue was completed, with teams from a nearby hotel complex, community leaders, national park officials and the veterinary surgeon had to provide medical aid to “stimulate the heart” of the elephant, who had stopped breathing due to the impact of the fall.
“She regained consciousness after being stimulated by both me and the baby, who insisted on sucking her nipples,” the veterinarian explained to EFE over telephone.
As soon as they recovered, the park authorities released the two animals back into the tropical forest where they live.
“We are happy that mother and baby are safe. This is the result of the hard work of all parties involved in the rescue,” Chanannya said.
In 2019, 11 elephants died when they fell down a waterfall in Khao Yai, an incident that some activists attributed to the loss of habitat of these animals due to human activity.
According to animal protection groups, about 3,000 wild elephants now live in Thailand’s forests threatened by increasing deforestation, compared to the 300,000 pachyderms that populated the country more than a century ago.
In the past, thousands of elephants were used in the timber industry, but when logging was banned in 1989, the pachyderms began to be exhibited in the streets to collect alms and exhibited in shows for tourists. EFE
nbo-sm/sc
