This elephant had wandered
miles away from her natural habitat,
alone into the human farming villages.
She must have been very sick
to keep the pace of her herd,
or maybe she simply lost them.
Whatever the reason,
she was feeble,
dehydrated,
malnourished
and was unable to get on her feet
by the time she was discovered by a group of villagers
who were wandering into the forest for farming.
she clearly had her hope in life gone,
but the villagers acted quickly notifying relevant authorities
and providing food, water and care
till the rescue aids arrive.
Even though with limited facilities and veterinarians and labour,
Sri Lankan wildlife Department perform
an invaluable role
in saving these elephants throughout the country.
The villagers did their best to
keep her alive till they arrive,
together selflessly to help this innocent soul.
They traveled miles by foot
to bring sufficient water and food to her.
Sri Lanka
an island with mesmerizing beaches
and is a heaven for tropical fauna.
It is renowned around the world
for having her rich population of elephants.
The Sri Lankan elephant
belongs to a subspecies of the Asian elephant,
Elephas maximas Maximus
and is considered an endangered species according to IUCN red data list,
which is the most comprehensive repository
that indicates the present status of any living species
on the planet.
However, with the expansion of population
in the country and urbanization,
humans started invading into the forests
making human-elephant conflict
a key issue in rural Sri Lanka.
Although human activities are a prime reason for threatening the
survival of the Asian elephant in Sri Lanka, this case was different.
people together giving their
fullest effort to make her better
but, it does not seems to be successful yet
So, they not only used machine power, but use
their manual skills to get her on her feet
The social behavior of elephants
is very complex and interesting.
In brief,
although males wonder alone
or in small herds
known as bachelor herds,
females and calves forms the herd, lead by a dominant matriarch.
but in this case, even though she is a female,
she was alone.
We can never know where her herd went,
and why she was left behind exactly,
but we can assume it has to do with her ill health.
People tries to feed her with banana trunks
She wants to eat them too, but it seems very hard for her
The veterinarians were taking their
best effort to treating her,
even though her good state was not very promising.
They addressed her dehydration,
provide suitable medicine and care.
Correcting dehydration or injecting
medicine for an elephant is not an easy task.
The normal half a liter
bottles of saline means nothing
to an elephant.
You need them in dozens!
and so is for other medicine.
All medicine was provided for the day
and now its them to wait with hope and help her
The skies are getting heavier, a rain is imminent
but the team is not ready to give up their effort.
To keep an elephant recumbent for long is not preferred,
as her heavy weight can create pressure wounds
on the recumbent side
They continued to treat
but her life path was not in
our hands to decide