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Elephant Nature Park News
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A message from our Founder - LekDear all, You may have heard the story of big floods in Thailand. This year is the worst year ever from flood disasters. Many people are homeless, business centers have turned into big lakes over night, more than 300 people dead and many more missing. Since early of October Elephant Nature Park and our hard working volunteers have been helping where we can. Assisting villages seeking their missing, looking for surviving animals from the land slides and cleaning the mess from damaged houses. As for the park, we very fortunately that we have no effect from flooding, because we have made the strong river wall. Thanks for all of your support that paying visitor provided and we have be able to use these funds to make the wall to protect the elephants and all animals at the park. On 09 October 2011, after I saw the people in town of Nakorn Sawan province, run away from flood and many of them so panic and they have left the animals behind. They wanted to take their pets with them but space on government provided boats was scares and the animals were not allow on boat. So many animals had to be abandoned. The TV showed thousands of pigs, cows, chickens, dogs, cats swept away by the strong current. We decided to bring our team out to help the animals as much as we could. The city of Nakorn Sawan became the dark city with no drinking water and supplies of food had broken down. Many people took showers and washed from flood water. All hotels in the high locations are full, even the lobbies were crammed with desperate people. All school and temples that remained dry swelled with refugees. We had a team that managed to bring 10 tons of human and animal food and medicine. There and another 13 tons of bananas and water melons to help the elephants in the area. The journey was difficult because the roads were deep in flood water. The journey would normally take 2 hours but it took us over 10 hours to reach the destination. The first day of our journey was spent trying to help animals was frustrating, because we not get co-operation from the local government. When we asked them to provide the boat we were told there were so few available and that they could only be used for people. Finally we manage to obtain a boat which was very expensive to rent. Along both sides of the trail we saw the houses and whole villages under water . all the area had become a ghost town. It was eerie and empty. Many animal stood in the water starving and dehydrated Some animals had been in the water too long. Many were very seriously sick, some with half their bodies full of pus and their skins had rotted in the dirty water. We made a temporary shelter at the temple and were instantly overwhelmed by hundreds of animals arriving at our shelter. At least they could receive help and hope. The next trip we are going to the remote area where there are heavy currents and deep water that they government boat can’t reach. That area has cleared all people out, but still so many animals are left behind. We will post this story later. Lek Chailert
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