So, imagine this: You run a place that’s supposed to protect elephants, but instead, two of them tragically drown during a flood. That’s exactly what happened at Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Not surprisingly, people are pretty upset about it, and the park is now catching a lot of heat.
According to Khaosod English on Thursday (Oct 10, 2024), two elephants—Pang Fah Sai (a 16-year-old) and Pang Loy (40 years old)—were swept away by floodwaters. And, as if that wasn’t tragic enough, one of them, Pang Fah Sai, was blind. Yeah, a blind elephant trying to survive in a flood. Let that sink in.
The poor animals were carried off by floodwaters on October 3rd, and their bodies were found about 5 km away from the park two days later on October 5th. It’s pretty heartbreaking stuff.
But that’s not all. The situation is extra frustrating because other nearby elephant camps apparently saw this coming and managed to move their elephants to safety. Meanwhile, Elephant Nature Park… didn’t. And now they’re getting slammed for it.
There’s also been some eye-rolling over how the park decided to handle the aftermath. They buried the elephants near the river, which had a lot of people scratching their heads. Experts pointed out that burying the elephants near the water might spread diseases, so not exactly the best choice there.
In case you’re wondering how many elephants were hanging out in the flood zone, the National Elephant Institute reported there were 49 elephant camps along the Mae Taeng River, with 546 elephants in total. Afterward, they counted 106 females, 10 males, and… two casualties.
Naturally, people have a few things to say about the whole situation. Kanchana Silpa-archa, who’s a big advocate for elephants and part of the Chart Thai Pattana Party, wasn’t shy about expressing her disappointment. She’s known for helping bring back a sick old elephant from Sri Lanka in 2023, so she’s not exactly new to this whole “caring for elephants” thing.
She didn’t hold back when she called out the park for not acting sooner. Other camps apparently had the common sense to evacuate their elephants at the first sign of trouble, but this park just kept right on accepting tourists until things got seriously bad. Not a great look.
Even more frustrating, videos and photos started circulating online, showing elephants literally wading through floodwaters by themselves. One of those elephants? Yep, the blind one. Talk about a bad day for these poor animals.
Kanchana had some sharp words about the park’s approach to managing elephants. Apparently, they didn’t have individual caretakers (called mahouts) for each elephant. Instead, they had a bunch of general caretakers running around, which, unsurprisingly, didn’t work out so well in a crisis. Elephants, especially in emergencies, need close supervision—something that didn’t happen here.
Meanwhile, Saengduean Chailert, the founder of Elephant Nature Park, wasn’t too thrilled with the backlash. In a post, she said she didn’t want to get dragged into the drama, claiming her park has done right by these elephants for two decades. She also hinted that if things get too heated, she might just let her lawyers handle it.
To her credit, Saengduean did say the loss of these two elephants was a wake-up call. She’s vowed that it’ll never happen again (fingers crossed).
In the meantime, they’re scrambling to clean up the mess left by the flood. The park is still buried under mud, and it’s going to take months to get things back to normal. Some shelters were destroyed, and a lot of the mahout families are homeless now.
Saengduean ended her post by saying, “We’ve got a long road ahead to get through this crisis. As the head of this family, I’m responsible for these animals and the people who care for them.”
Let’s just hope they get their act together before another disaster hits.