Bangkok (EFE)
The elephants, traveling with a herd of about 10 pachyderms, fell into a sinkhole near Lam Khlong Ngu National Park, located northeast of Kanchanaburi, park authorities said on their Facebook page.
Authorities asked the public to stay away from the area for fear of the herd’s reaction, but the rescue was ultimately carried out without incident.
Park employees and residents of the area used an excavator to help the elephant and her calf get out of the hole, after which they returned to their herd, which was in the vicinity, Lam Khlong Ngu authorities reported.
Wild elephants in Thailand threatened by deforestation
In 2019, eleven elephants died when they plunged down a waterfall in Khao Yai, an incident some activists blamed on human-caused loss of pachyderm habitat.
According to animal protection groups, some 3,000 wild elephants now live in Thailand’s forests threatened by increasing deforestation, compared with 300,000 pachyderms that roamed the country more than a century ago.
In the past, thousands of elephants were used in the logging industry, but when logging was banned in 1989, pachyderms began to be displayed on the streets to beg and used in shows for tourism.
