A Thai elephant gifted to Sri Lanka two decades ago yesterday arrived back to its birth country, following a diplomatic spat over the animal’s alleged mistreatment.
Thai authorities had gifted the 29-year-old Muthu Raja — also known back in its birthplace as Sak Surin — to Sri Lanka in 2001.
They demanded it back last year after allegations it was tortured and neglected while housed at a Buddhist temple in the island nation’s south.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The 4,000kg mammal flew out from Colombo airport yesterday morning on a one-way commercial flight in an Ilyushin IL-76 cargo plane for a repatriation that Thai officials said had cost US$700,000.
“He arrived in Chiang Mai perfectly,” said Thai Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Varawut Silpa-archa said, speaking from the airport. “He traveled five hours and nothing is wrong, his condition is normal.”
“If everything goes well, we will move him,” he added, referring to plans to quarantine the elephant at a nearby nature reserve.
The elephant was moved from its temporary home at a zoo in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, before dawn, accompanied by four Thai handlers and a Sri Lankan keeper, with two cameras monitoring its health in transit.
The chief veterinarian at National Zoological Gardens of Sri Lanka, Madusha Perera, said that Muthu Raja was in pain and covered in abscesses when it was rescued from its previous abode last year.
Animal welfare groups said the elephant had been forced to work with a logging crew and its wounds — some allegedly inflicted by its handler — had been neglected.
The elephant is to undergo hydrotherapy to treat a remaining injury on its front left leg when it returns to Thailand, Perera said.
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