100 rescued elephants escape flood in Nordthailand, 2 die

100 rescued elephants escape flood in Nordthailand, 2 die

In Nordthailand, there were severe floods in a popular elephant home on Thursday, in which two elephants died and around 100 more and numerous tourists had to be evacuated. The location on site is tense and help is urgently needed.

drama in the elephant home

Videos from the Elephant Nature Park near Chiang Mai show how dozens of elephants waded through knee -deep water, in the hope of getting to higher terrain. "It was the largest evacuation that we have ever carried out. The water rose very quickly," said Saengduean "Lek" Chailert, the founder of the Elephant Nature Park, in an interview with CNN. The floods are the worst that the park has ever experienced.

evacuation in the highest emergency

In the videos, the employees of the park who work as mahouts with the elephants can be seen as they call: "Go ahead, keep going!" And pushing the large animals from their stables and through the flood areas. While many animals found refuge on a nearby mountain at night, Saengduean warned in the morning that the danger was far from over. "There are some animals that we could not evacuate yesterday. Thirteen elephants are still caught in their stables. They panic," continued Saengduean.

grief for the lost elephants

One of the two deceased elephants is Ploy Thong, a blind elephant. "My heart is broken. They were carried away by the floods before my eyes," said Saengduean. In the past few weeks, Nordthailand has suffered from severe floods and landslides, which were caused by the taifuns of the Taifuns Yagi taif -like rain - the strongest storm in Asia this year, which in mid -September demanded dozens of fatalities.

urgent call to the authorities

The authorities in Chiang Mai, a popular tourist destination in Thailand, have published warnings of possible floods, while the water levels of the ping flow that flows through the city have reached dangerous heights. In view of the far -reaching floods around the park and rising water levels, the founder of the home, Saengduean, asked for urgent help from the Thai authorities. "The Situation is much worse than yesterday," she said, adding that they urgently needed boats so that the mahouts can stay with the remaining elephants in the park to calm them down.

auxiliary measures for animals and volunteers

"We urgently need voluntary and animal cages, since we have to bring the animals into the mountains due to the completely cut streets in both directions," said park management in a contribution on Facebook. Around 30 foreign volunteers, including five Americans, are also caught in the Sanctuary, with some of them working in the park for several weeks.

The Elephant Nature Park in focus

The Elephant Nature Park is a rescue and rehabilitation center for elephants in the vicinity of Chiang Mai. It has saved over 200 elephants from the tourism and wooden harvest industry since its foundation in the 1990s. In addition, tours and volunteer programs are offered that enable visitors to observe the animals or help with nature conservation work.

protection of endangered elephants and animals

Many of the elephants in the park are blind or have physical injuries that restrict their escape options and make evacuation difficult. "There are many sick elephants among the evacuated animals, some can hardly walk. We had to help them get to the foot of the mountain. We urgently need help," said Saengduean. In addition to elephants, the park houses around 5,000 saved animals, including dogs, cats, horses, pigs and rabbits - some of them have been evacuated in the past few days after the authorities had issued a flood warning.

challenges from the floods

The head of the Thai National Park Authority, Atthapol Charoenchansa, said that dozens of officials were sent, but could not get to the park due to flooded roads. He explained that flatbody boats and volunteers are urgently needed to evacuate the remaining animals. Several villages in the Mae Rim district of Chiang Mai have already been flooded by water from upper tributaries, local media reported on Thursday.

decline in wild elephants

The elephants, the national animal Thailand, have experienced a very declining population in recent decades due to threats from tourism, wooden harvest, poaching and human settlement of their habitats. Experts estimate that the game population of the elephants in Thailand has dropped to 3,000 to 4,000 - a decline of over 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century.