Boon Rod - a moment of freedom
"By Lek Chailert" 25 Jul 2005
Boon Rod took immediately to the love she received from
everyone at Elephant Nature Park. The herd welcomed her with
open trunks and her confidence swelled. Boon Rod walked round
the park on her second day introducing herself to all herd
members. She even stopped to say hello to Khum Min, a bull
elephant just recovering from musth.
After breakfast our mahouts and volunteers took her, along
with the herd, to the
jungle. This is the first time she has walked without chains and heavy packs on her back. She
was a little unsure, often looking back to her mahout, as if to
ask permission. She wondered "why no
more chains"? When she saw the others walking free she soon followed.
She was so excited about the jungle forest. She ran back and forth trumpeting in
delight. Her life at the park consisted of eating and playing. Even thought she
had been there for just a
few days she soon learned that the daily banana schedule was 11.00 am. She came
right up to the platform and eagerly awaited the bananas and various fruits fed
by our volunteers.
At the field she would lean her head against the side of Mae Tong Bai and
close her eyes.
She started to bond with a little infant elephant and she stayed close beside her.
Sometimes
she tried to take milk from the baby's nanny. She began to play and act like a little
girl. She had had no childhood of her own.
No one knew if Boon Rod came from the wild or how she had become separated from her mother, but she showed
us all just how hungry for love she was. She needed the touch from the
big mother elephants and clearly showed how desperate she was for their love.
All day long she spent her time with the four park mothers Mae Buatong . Mae E-lu , Thai, Khamsai and her little sister. Some times we saw
her laying down and sleeping with the little baby under the protection of the
four mothers. This was a blissful time, free from worries, hot tarmac and long
hours of wandering the bright streets.
Her time for freedom was limited. On 21 July, at 1 pm, the owner and
his mahout came for her. They had cleared the case with the police and wanted to take
her back to work the streets again. Boon Rod was resting with the herd. They
had a truck
and wanted to remove her immediately. We begged them to give her one more day
to rest and stay the herd. They did not agree so, finally, the mahouts went to
take her away from her new family.
When she saw them with the hooks she panicked and then ran back to the
herd trumpeting. All of the elephants at the park
responded, trumpeting loudly back. It was so loud it shook the whole valley. Her mahout
tried to catch her but with no success. Our mahout
had to pat her and calm her down.
We took her to swim with all of our herd for the last time. She
completely ignored her mahout and walked far from him.
It was time to go up to the truck. It was not easy like the day she left the city
for the park. Boon Rod was really against going and attacked her mahout. She shook
her
head and threw the mahout off her neck. She kicked every one who tried to
push her up to the truck. She tried to run back to the shelter where she
slept with her herd but cannot as her mahout had already chained her
to the truck. It took nearly one hour to get her ready to move. During this hour
we shared her pain and suffering . Her mahout wanted to use nasty ways to force her up to the
truck, but we would not allow them to do this at our park.
The truck have took her away into the darkness of the night. As the truck moved
away we heard her trumpet three times.
She is now back at work on the streets again, confused as to why her freedom
was so short . Boon Rod is
gone but the memories of her painful departure fill us all with heart break.
Elephant Nature Park will trying to save Boon Rod now and do whatever we can to bring her back
to a place where she can be free. We will also help elephants out from the street and
do what we can to bring them back to nature.
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