Sri Lanka is home to its own sub-species of Asian elephants. That means, elephants hold great symbolic importance in the country. But, despite being such a treasure to the place, they are also threatened here. Mostly close to the ripe seasons of crops, farmers set up different kinds of traps for animals to prevent their invasion in the crop fields. Hakka Patas and cable wire traps are the most common ones in the area to control the animal invasion.
Unfortunately, these traps prove to be a great punish for the innocent animals who don’t even have the sense that they are not allowed to enter a certain territory. Especially for the elephants, Hakka patas and cable wires bring a slow yet painful death.
Similar is the case here with this baby elephant. It has been trapped in a cable trick in its left forelimb. As soon as the villagers noticed this innocent creature in pain, they captured it and informed the wildlife team . Watching the crowd of people around, this baby elephant is quite nervous and wants to run away. But it does not know that it has been kept here to free it from the cable trick and treat its wound.
In an attempt to escape from the situation, it is getting more trapped in the rope again and again unknowingly. The villagers along with the wildlife team managed some leaves and straw to provide some food and bedding to the elephant. The team caressed it and tried to relieve it through a refreshing bath. Soon, it got a bit familiar and started to play with water. Seems like it wants to drink water but does know how to. Again, thanks to the team wildlife for another heroic act of teaching it how to drink water.
As soon as the elephant got relaxed, the team started with the medical treatment. Restraining such an animal in pain and nervousness is quite difficult especially when it has a fresh wound and someone is going to wash it. Similar was the case with this baby elephant. As the team started the medical treatment, it attempted to resist but the professionally trained personnel of the team handled it quite well.
First of all, the team members washed the wound with water and cut the cable trick. This was the cable that was stuck in the foot of this poor baby elephant. Now, it’s time to treat the wound. First, the team debrided the wound, and later they dressed it with the most appropriate medicine. Since the team wildlife consists of professionally trained personnel, they know very well how to deal with the situations and relieve the innocent animals from the pain and unpleasant conditions.
Elephants are a kind of signature for Sri Lanka and they need to be saved from being extinct. Although many programs to save elephants have been set up by the government of Sri Lanka, many of them are still found dead due to various reasons. One of these reasons is the illiteracy and lack of knowledge among the farmers’ community. Due to lack of knowledge and sense of humanity, farmers often set up traps for animals to keep them away from the croplands. Unaware of the fact that these traps bring too much pain and difficulties for the non-targeted animals as well – especially elephants.
Now that the wound has been treated, this baby elephant needs to be shifted to a suitable environment. So, the team wildlife is taking it to a place where its wound will be healed, and later it will be left free in the forest to live its normal life.
