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A well-liked nationwide park in Thailand issued an pressing plea for assist after dozens of elephants and different animals had been swept away by floods following the devastation brought about by Storm Yagi.
The Elephant Nationwide Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand, mentioned they had been unable to entry the elements of the sanctuary the place scores of animals had been believed to be trapped after roads had been “fully flooded”.
A number of vacationers and animal handlers had been additionally stranded as water started filling up the park.
Dramatic movies and footage launched by the park confirmed panic-stricken elephants wading by flood waters that inundated the jumbos until their bellies as volunteers moved them to a secure place.
Different movies confirmed water flooding a shelter with canine sitting on tables and better areas, barking. Dozens of cats had been rescued in a cage.
“Now the elephant, the cow, the buffalo have swept away alongside the water by the tunnel,” the park mentioned in a Fb submit, urging locals to alert officers if anybody spots them.
Saengduean Chailert, director of the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai province, shared a video of a ship being getting ready to be despatched to the trapped animals, as she broke down in tears whereas asking for pressing assist from the federal government.
“The water is flooding worse than earlier than. The whole space is flooded. The entire village is flooded… Proper now, we’ve nowhere to go,” she wrote on social media.
Sharing the video of elephants attempting to flee the flood, she mentioned she feels particularly sorry for a mom elephant who was not capable of meet up with the herd as she is blind.
The mountainous metropolis of Chaing Mai, a fashionable vacationer vacation spot in Thailand, is underneath alert for potential flooding after the Ping River burst its banks following heavy downpours.
Extreme flooding after rainfall and landslides have brought about devastation in northern Thailand in latest weeks after Storm Yagi, Asia’s strongest storm this yr, hit southern China and Southeast Asia.
The hurricane has left dozens of individuals useless after it struck Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and Laos in mid-September, leaving a path of destruction.
About 30 international volunteers, together with 5 from America, and 100 elephants have been trapped on the sanctuary, Ms Chailert advised CNN.
She mentioned it was the “greatest evacuation we’ve ever executed to save lots of” the lives of the animals and it’s the second time in latest months that they needed to take emergency motion.
The sanctuary, which homes greater than 120 elephants in addition to cows, buffaloes, canine and cats, had been issuing pressing pleas for assist, requesting extra volunteers and gear akin to cages, boats and waterproof tarps.
“We urgently want volunteers and animal cages as we should transfer the animals to the mountains as a result of roads being fully minimize off in each instructions,” it mentioned.
“Some roads have turn into solely two meters vast, and the street at Pang Mai Daeng is the one one nonetheless operational, however at the moment, it’s closed resulting from a landslide.”
The Unbiased has reached out to the Elephant Nature Park for feedback.
