Sak Surin, an elephant donated to Sri Lanka more than two decades ago, is expected to be brought back to Thailand in June to receive medical treatment as he is ill and has poor living conditions, the Thai media has reported.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa said the timeframe for Sak Surin to come home had been developed in a series of meetings and after a visit by veterinarians to Sri Lanka.

“The team of vets was sent to Sri Lanka to assess the readiness for Sak Surin’s return to Thailand. After compiling the information, we plan to bring the elephant home in June,” said Varawut.

Thai authorities learnt about the mistreatment of Sak Surin after concerns were raised by Rally for Animal Rights and Environment (RARE), a non-governmental organisation for the protection of animal rights in Sri Lanka.

It said the male elephant was in urgent need of medical treatment.

Varawut said his ministry had initially planned to bring the elephant home early this year and experts said, considering the pachyderm’s condition, air travel would be safer than by sea, which would take much longer.

He said, however, that a suitable cage would not fit into a C-130 aircraft, so the ministry was looking for suitable aircraft and would construct a new cage for the safety of the animal.

Sak Surin is one of three elephants donated to the Sri Lankan Government, which transferred ownership to Kande Vihara Temple to perform its duty as the carrier of the holy relics during the annual Buddhist parades.

The Thai Foreign Ministry, upon learning of Sak Surin’s plight, discussed the issue with Varawut’s ministry and asked the Royal Thai Embassy in Colombo to investigate the matter.

In August last year, the Thai Embassy in Colombo conducted a primary investigation and found that the animal was not in good health and was being kept in poor living conditions.

Thai experts also recommended that Sak Surin cease participating in parades immediately and be brought back to Thailand for proper medical treatment.

In November, Sak Surin was transferred to the Dehiwala Zoo for preliminary treatment and rehabilitation, under the care of both Thai and Sri Lankan experts.

To repatriate Sak Surin, Sri Lanka has to approve and the process must be in accordance with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Former Suphan Buri MP Kanchana Silpa-archa is one of the people who played a key role in securing the elephant’s return to Thailand from Sri Lanka, which was tentatively scheduled to be flown back home on 1 July.

In an exclusive interview with Thai PBS, Kanchana, the older sister of Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Varawut, recalled that in August last year, she had received a call from Sittidet Mahasawangkul, a veterinarian at the Forest Industry Organisation, asking for help to bring Sak Surin back to Thailand for medical treatment, as the elephant had a badly infected wound, its living conditions at the temple in Sri Lanka were poor, and it was not being given proper care.

She said that she had been saddened when she had seen a picture of the elephant, which had been sent to her by Mahasawangkul, and had consulted her brother, Varawut, who was overseeing the Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation.

She also said that the Thai Ambassador in Sri Lanka had been very helpful and arranged for a team of Thai vets to visit Sri Lanka to take care of Sak Surin, which had marked the start of the process to bring the animal back home for proper treatment.

Thanks to the kindness of the abbot of the temple in Sri Lanka, Sak Surin had been relocated to a zoo to be taken care of by a Thai mahout, Thongsuk Mali-ngam, who had been flown from Thailand, initially for a period of one month, which had been extended to almost six months, said Kanchana.

Thai vets had been sent to Sri Lanka twice to treat the nasty wound on the elephant’s hip, once in August last year and again in November.

Kanchana said that all the vets and others involved had agreed that the best way to treat the elephant would be to bring it back to Thailand, initially in January this year, but it had been delayed because the elephant had been in musth.

Ambassador Pote in Sri Lanka was instrumental in arranging the considerable amount of paperwork for the elephant to be flown back, required because it is a species listed in the CITES. Meanwhile, in Thailand, a new air transport cage has been built.

Kanchana admitted that while the task of repatriating the elephant may not appear to be difficult, without the cooperation of several governmental agencies, including state funding of a 24.7 million baht ($ 700,000) special budget, the Thai Embassy in Sri Lanka, the Forest Industry Organisation, Minister Varawut, the mahout, and the Sri Lankans who were assisting, this could not have happened.

She said that Sak Surin was luckier than the many other elephants which had been sent overseas and had not had a chance to return home. 

(Source: Thai PBS)