Documentary exposes horrific elephant torture in Cambodia

It’s tough out there for Babar.

In the new documentary “Love & Bananas: An Elephant Story,” out Friday, American filmmaker Ashley Bell flies to Cambodia to discover the scary plight of Asian elephants, some of the largest animals on Earth, who are plagued by poachers and exploited in logging camps.

“A close family friend owns the Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary, and I heard through them they’d been looking for elephants to rescue for about 10 years,” Bell tells The Post. “When I heard they finally had rescued them and were releasing them onto the sanctuary, it just hit me to my core. And I said ‘I’ve gotta go.’ ”

The rescue in the film takes place in Cambodia, where the team — including renowned elephant expert Lek Chailert — attempt to save a 70-year-old animal named Noi Na.

Captive elephants like Noi Na are forced to endure a little-known torture called “The Crush Box,” in which humans beat them into submission for days. Noi Na’s experience left her partially blind.

Chailert’s methods for rehabilitating hurt elephants are tender and maternal, and many of the animals look to her as a mom. Bell, at first, had doubts.

“[Chailert] treats them like humans. She treats them with dignity and respect, and she gives them love. I’m a pretty skeptical person, so I was like, ‘Sure, Lek,’ ” Bell says. “But I saw it with my own eyes. To see the change in Noi Na’s behavior as soon as the chains are taken off and she’s made to feel comfortable in Lek’s sanctuary. She immediately began eating, rubbing up against walls, covering herself with dirt and scratching her butt.” All good signs.

Although it can be hard to witness the suffering of captive elephants, at the sanctuary, Bell says, there was plenty of cuteness overload.

“There are some baby elephants in the park. To see them wake up and just rush [out] … and fling themselves onto a mud pit,” she says, “was quite possibly the best thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

To read the full article, click on the story title.

Cambodia rescues 11 endangered elephants

Phnom Penh, March 25 (IANS) At least 11 endangered Asian elephants were rescued by Cambodian villagers from a muddy bomb crater on Saturday, an official said.

The elephants, including three youngsters, were trapped in a three-metre deep bomb crater inside the Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary in Mondolkiri province on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Villagers reported to the conservationists about the incident, said Keo Sopheak, Director of the Environment Department.

"We dug away at the side of the crater, and created a path to enable the wild elephants to climb free," Sopheak said.

He said no elephant was injured in the incident, and they were released into the jungle.

Cambodia is home to over 500 wild elephants, according to the Forestry Administration.

 Please credit and share this article with others using this link:
http://www.tnindian.com/desi/newsdetail.asp?id=264152

A Whole Family Of Elephants And Their Babies Were Trapped In The Mud For Hours

At the end of March, an incredible rescue mission took place in the sanctuary of Keo Seima Wildlife in Cambodia. An entire family of Asian elephants found themselves suddenly trapped in a huge dam of mud, reports The Dodo.

The huge hole, normally used by local farmers to store water, had been transformed into a sticky, muddy pool which could have taken the lives of this elephant family as they were unable to get out.

As soon as the farmers found the animals in the mud trap, they contacted the Minister of Environmental Affairs, who then contacted the associations, Elephant Livelihood Initiative Environment (ELIE), and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Cambodia. The volunteers rushed to the scene and found the family completely exhausted and in grave danger.

 They gave food and water to the three adult and eight baby elephants to help them regain their strength before commencing the rescue mission. They started to water the elephants down to refresh them, and also to thin out the thick, sticky mud.

To read the full article, click on the story title

Community Rallies To Free Elephant Herd Trapped In Muddy Bomb Crater

Eleven have been saved from ghastly deaths in the tanks to the collaboration of local villagers and wildlife conservation groups.

People living near in bomb had originally created, the In more recent years, the local community has been using the crater to store water.

The herd had apparently become stuck in the muddy pit, unable to scale the steep sides, when they wandered in to drink and bathe, By the time the local farmers spotted them on Sunday, it was clear they had been there for some time

“They obviously had been in there at least a couple of days … because the little baby was very exhausted and the mud was so sticky,” Jemma Bullock of told Cambodia Daily. She added that the elephants would likely have soon died from exhaustion had people not intervened.

The people who saw the elephants contacted the provincial environmental department, which brought in representatives from ELIE, the , the , and to help. Staff from those groups teamed up numerous people from the local community to dig into the side of the crater and construct a makeshift ramp for the herd.

Video footage of the rescue shows the elephants making their way up the ramp and walking free. While 10 of them escaped this way, the final elephant — a young one weakened by the ordeal, had to be lifted out using ropes. Tan Setha of WCS told LiveScience that the deaths of the entire herd ― which included three adult females and eight juveniles — would have seriously hindered conservation efforts in the sanctuary.

“These elephants represent an important part of the breeding population in Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, and their loss would have been a major blow to conservation,” he said.

Please credit and share this article with others using this link:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/elephants-herd-freed-mud-bomb-pit_us_58e005a4e4b0ba359595813c