Flash floods swept through a popular elephant sanctuary in northern Thailand on Thursday, forcing the evacuation of about a hundred elephants and trapping dozens of tourists amid urgent appeals for help.
Dramatic video and images from the Elephant nature park Near the city of Chiang Mai, dozens of elephants were seen wading through belly-deep water to find safety on higher ground.
“It was the largest evacuation we ever did to save their lives, the water rose quickly,” Saengduean “Lek” Chailert, founder of Elephant Nature Park, told CNN, calling the flooding the worst the park has ever experienced .
Video showed park staff who work with elephants, known as mahouts, shouting, “Go, go,” as they pushed the enormous pachyderms out of their pens and through the high water.
While many of the animals found shelter on a nearby mountain Thursday night, Saengduean said the danger is far from over.
“There are some animals that we could not evacuate yesterday. Thirteen adult elephants are still trapped in their enclosure. They are panicking,” Saengduean said.
Northern Thailand has suffered severe flooding and landslides in recent weeks due to heavy rainfall caused by Typhoon Yagi, Asia’s most powerful storm this year, which left dozens dead when it swept across the region in mid-September.
Authorities in Chaing Mai, a popular tourist destination in Thailand, have issued warnings of possible flooding as water levels along the Ping River, which runs through the city, reach dangerous levels.
With major flooding around the park and water levels still rising, the sanctuary’s founder says they are faced with the unwelcome prospect of having to evacuate the animals for a second time.
“The situation is a lot worse than yesterday,” she said, adding that she has requested urgent help from Thai authorities.
A priority is to obtain boats so the mahouts can stay with the remaining elephants in the park to keep them calm, she said.
“We urgently need volunteers and animal cages as we need to move the animals to the mountains as the roads in both directions are completely cut off,” the park said in a post on Facebook.
About 30 foreign volunteers are also stuck in the reserve, including five Americans, some of whom have been working in the park for several weeks, Saengduean said.
The Elephant nature park is an elephant rescue and rehabilitation center in rural Chiang Mai that has rescued more than 200 elephants from the tourism and logging industries since its founding in the 1990s. It also organizes guided tours and volunteer programs that allow visitors to observe the animals or help with conservation work.
Many of the elephants are blind or have physical injuries, limiting their ability to escape and complicating evacuation efforts.
“Among the evacuated animals are many sick elephants, some of which can barely walk. We had to help them reach the foot of the mountain. We urgently need help,” Saengduean said.
In addition to elephants, the park is home to approximately 5,000 rescued animals, including dogs, cats, horses, pigs and rabbits. Some of these were evacuated in recent days after authorities issued a flood warning.
The head of Thailand’s Ministry of National Parks said dozens of officers were dispatched but were unable to reach the park because of flooded roads, state TV reported. Atthapol Charoenchansa said they urgently need flat-bottomed boats and volunteers to help evacuate the remaining animals.
Several villages in Chiang Mai’s Mae Rim district have been flooded by water from upstream drains, local media reported Thursday.
Elephants, Thailand’s national animal, have seen their wild population decline in recent decades due to threats from tourism, logging, poaching and human encroachment on elephant habitats.
Experts estimate that Thailand’s wild elephant population has dwindled to 3,000 to 4,000, down from more than 100,000 at the turn of the 20th century.
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