Thai elephant returns home after two decades in Sri Lanka

Disagreement over animal's treatment ends in relocation to Chiang Mai

Elephant keepers led an ailing Thai elephant named Sak Surin, also known as 'Muthu Raja', to the flight cage for his flight back to Thailand from the National Zoological Garden in Dehiwala Suburb of Colombo, Sri Lanka, 01 July 2023. Sak Surin is a 29-year-old elephant received by Sri Lanka as a gift from the Thai government in 2001. After two decades, the ailing elephant was flown back to Thailand on a charter plane on 01 July to receive medical care. EPA / CHAMILA KARUNARATHNE

The elephant is flying from Colombo, Sri Lanka, back to Thailand. EPA

Sak Surin is aged 29. EPA

The elephant was a gift to Sri Lanka from the Thai government in 2001. EPA

It is being flown back to Thailand on a charter plane to receive medical care. AFP

People gather to say goodbye to Sak Surin. EPA

Elephant keepers with the animal. EPA

Workers prepare the flight cage. EPA

A Thai elephant gifted to Sri Lanka two decades ago arrived back in its birth country on Sunday, following a diplomatic spat over the animal's alleged mistreatment.

Thai authorities had gifted the 29-year-old Muthu Raja – known in its homeland as Sak Surin – to Sri Lanka in 2001.

But they demanded the elephant back last year after allegations that it had been tortured and neglected while kept at a Buddhist temple.

The 4,000-kilogramme mammal arrived in Thailand just after 2pm, having been transported inside a specially constructed giant steel crate on board an Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane.

“He arrived in Chiang Mai perfectly,” Thai Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa said at the city's airport.

“He travelled for five hours and nothing is wrong, his condition is normal.”

“If everything goes well, we will move him,” he added, referring to plans to quarantine the elephant at a nearby nature reserve.

Mr Silpa-archa helped give the elephant a drink after Muthu Raja's decorated crate was removed from the plane, with the thirsty animal eagerly reaching its trunk through a hole to accept the water.

The elephant could be seen when officials briefly opened the crate's rear doors and sprayed it down with water.

Muthu Raja was moved from its temporary home at a zoo in Colombo before dawn, accompanied by four Thai handlers and a Sri Lankan keeper, with two CCTV cameras monitoring its health in transit.

It left Colombo at 7.40am on a commercial reparation flight that Thai officials said cost $700,000.

Muthu Raja was in pain and covered in abscesses when it was rescued from the Buddhist temple last year, the zoo's chief veterinary surgeon, Madusha Perera, told AFP.

Animal welfare groups said the elephant had been forced to work with a logging crew and that its wounds, some allegedly inflicted by its handler, had been neglected.

The elephant will undergo hydrotherapy in Thailand to treat an injury on its left front leg, Ms Perera said.

Elephants are considered sacred in Sri Lanka and are protected by law.

The organisation Rally for Animal Rights and Environment (RARE), which led a campaign to rescue Muthu Raja from the temple, expressed its unhappiness over the animal's departure.

RARE organised a Buddhist blessing for the elephant on Friday ahead of its journey, and has petitioned authorities to prosecute those it says are responsible for neglecting the animal.

Sri Lanka's Wildlife Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi said Thailand was “adamant” in its demands for the elephant's return.

Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena told parliament in June that he had personally conveyed Sri Lanka's regrets to the Thai king over the elephant's condition.

Thailand has stopped sending elephants abroad, Mr Silpa-archa said, adding that Bangkok's diplomatic missions are checking the condition of elephants already sent overseas.