An ailing Thai elephant returns home for tender loving care after years of neglect in Sri Lanka

BANGKOK (AP) — An ailing elephant that Thailand had presented to Sri Lanka more than two decades ago returned on Sunday to his native land to get medical treatment after animal lovers said the animal had been badly abused.

The elephant, known in Sri Lanka as Muthu Raja, or Pearly King, was flown directly from the capital of the South Asian island nation to Chiang Mai province in the north of Thailand on a Russian Ilyushin IL-76 cargo plane on a flight that took about six hours.

He was accompanied by a team of six people, including two veterinarians and four mahouts, or professional elephant trainers, three of them Thai and one from Sri Lanka.

A special cage was built to hold the 275-centimeter- (9-foot-) tall, four-ton creature. Several mahouts had been sent beforehand to Sri Lanka to help the elephant feel at ease in a cage so he wouldn’t panic while being transported.

Video footage of his arrival in Chiang Mai showed the elephant conscious and appearing calm.

Thailand’s Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa was at the airport and said that the elephant, which goes by the name Sak Surin, or Mighty Surin, in his homeland, arrived in perfect condition. He had said earlier that Thailand spent at least 19 million baht ($540,000) for his repatriation.

The pachyderm could be heard trumpeting from inside his cage inside the truck that was to transport him to the government’s Thai Elephant Conservation Center in the nearby Lampang province, where he will be quarantined for at least 30 days and stay for rehabilitation.

The male elephant was sent to Sri Lanka in 2001 when he was around 10 years old as a gift from the Thai royal family. He was one of three elephants that Thailand had given to Sri Lanka’s government to be trained as a carrier of religious relics. Mathu Raja was placed in the care of a Buddhist temple.

Controversy over his condition erupted in 2020 when the Sri Lanka-based Rally for Animal Rights and Environment group said the animal was in bad health due to years of hard labor and abuse, and that he needed urgent medical care. The group started a petition calling for him to be reduced, and later to be returned to Thailand after the Sri Lankan government allegedly ignored their complaints.

In November 2022, Thailand’s Foreign Affairs Ministry released a statement that, in response to concerns raised by the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, a preliminary investigation was conducted by the Thai Embassy in Colombo. It concluded that the elephant “was not in good health and was in poor living conditions.” The statement said that Thailand would seek Sri Lanka’s approval to bring the elephant back for treatment.

The elephant was reported to be underweight, have rough skin and abscesses on both hips, thinning footpads, and a stiff left foreleg, making it difficult for the animal to walk and stand.

He was moved from his temple home to Sri Lanka’s National Zoological Garden for preliminary treatment prior to his flight to Thailand and was seen to appear healthier.

Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena told the parliament last month that he had expressed his regret to his Thai counterpart over the treatment of the elephant during his trip to Thailand in May.

Thai officials have said that the main purpose of bringing the elephant back was for medical care, and whether the elephant would go back to Sri Lanka remains a subject to be discussed with the Colombo government.

During a press conference in the Thai capital Bangkok last month, Environment Minister Varawut said the authorities would start surveying the health condition of other Thai elephants in foreign countries. He said that, for conservation reasons, the export of Thai elephants has already been banned.

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