The specially-built cage, designed to accommodate Sak Surin, an ailing Thai elephant in Sri Lanka, during its journey home to Thailand, is 50% complete and is expected to be flown to a zoo in Sri Lanka within a week.
Natural Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa told Thai PBS today (Wednesday) that a team of veterinarians and officials from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation and the Forest Industry Organisation are already in Sri Lanka making preparations for the journey back to Thailand.
They will be joined by a team of mahouts, who will leave for Sri Lanka this Saturday, he said, adding that the mahouts will have to get acquainted with the elephant and train it to enter and exit the cage.
He stressed that this process is necessary to ensure the optimum safety for Sak Surin during the flight on a chartered Russian flight, which will take about six hours.
The flight is still scheduled for July 1st and the plane is expected to arrive in Chiang Mai during the night of the same day. The elephant may have to spend a night at a zoo in Chiang Mai, if it is tired after the journey, before it leaves for the elephant conservation centre in Lampang province for rehabilitation and permanent stay.
Kanchana Silpa-archa, Varawut’s sister, who has been instrumental in bringing Sak Surin back to Thailand for treatment, will travel to Sri Lanka on June 29th to take delivery of Sak Surin for the journey home. While in Sri Lanka, she plans to visit one of the two other Thai elephants there, Sri Narong.
The government has set aside about 24 million baht from the Central Fund to pay for the repatriation of Sak Surin, one of three elephants donated to Sri Lanka by the Thai government about two decades ago.
