Hundreds of rescued elephants escape floods at popular sanctuary in northern Thailand

() – Flash floods devastated a popular elephant sanctuary in northern Thailand on Thursday, forcing the evacuation of about 100 elephants and leaving dozens of tourists trapped, amid urgent calls for help.

Dramatic video and images from the Elephant Nature Park near the city of Chiang Mai showed dozens of elephants wading through belly-deep water to reach safety on higher ground.

“It was the largest evacuation we have ever done to save their lives, the water rose quickly,” Saengduean “Lek” Chailert, founder of the Elephant Nature Park, told , calling the flooding the most serious the park has ever suffered.

One video showed park staff working with elephants, known as mahouts, shouting, “Come on, come on, move on,” as they pushed the huge pachyderms out of their pens and through rising waters.

Although many of the animals found shelter on a nearby mountain overnight Thursday, by morning Saengduean said the danger was far from over.

“Yesterday we were not able to evacuate some animals. Thirteen adult elephants are still trapped in their habitats. They are panicking,” Saengduean said.

Northern Thailand has suffered severe flooding and landslides in recent weeks due to torrential rains caused by Typhoon Yagi, Asia’s most powerful storm this year, which left dozens dead when it devastated the region in mid-September.

Authorities in Chaing Mai, a popular tourist destination in Thailand, issued alerts for possible flooding, as the water level of the Ping River, which runs through the city, reached dangerous levels.

With major flooding around the park and waters continuing to rise, the sanctuary’s founder said they face the unpleasant prospect of having to evacuate the animals a second time.

“The situation is much worse than yesterday,” he says, adding that he has requested urgent help from the Thai authorities.

One of the priorities is to get boats so that the mahouts can stay with the remaining elephants in the park and keep them calm.

“We urgently need volunteers and cages for the animals, as we must move them to the mountains due to the roads being completely closed in both directions,” the park said in a Facebook post.

About 30 foreign volunteers are also trapped at the sanctuary, including five Americans, some of whom have been working at the park for several weeks, Saengduean said.

The Elephant Nature Park is an elephant rescue and rehabilitation center in the Chiang Mai countryside that has rescued more than 200 elephants from the tourism and logging industries since its establishment in the 1990s. It also organizes tours and volunteer programs that They allow visitors to observe animals or help in conservation work.

Many of the elephants are blind or have physical injuries, which has hindered their ability to escape and complicated evacuation efforts.

“Among the evacuated animals there are many sick elephants, some barely walk. We had to help them get to the bottom of the mountain. We desperately need help,” Saengduean said.

In addition to elephants, the park is home to some 5,000 rescued animals, including dogs, cats, horses, pigs and rabbits, some of which were evacuated in recent days following the flood alert issued by the authorities.

The head of Thailand’s National Parks Department said dozens of officials had been dispatched but had not been able to reach the park because of flooded roads, according to state television National Broadcasting Television. Atthapol Charoenchansa said they urgently need flat-bottomed boats and volunteers to help evacuate the remaining animals.

Several villages in the Mae Rim district of Chiang Mai have been flooded by upstream runoff, local media reported on Thursday.

Elephants, Thailand’s national animal, have seen their wild population decline in recent decades due to threats from tourism, logging, poaching and human encroachment on their habitats.

Experts estimate that the wild elephant population in Thailand has dropped to between 3,000 and 4,000, down from more than 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century.