An elephant went missing in the floodwaters on the mountains of Mae Win subdistrict, Mae Wang district, Chiang Mai, after heavy overnight rain sent a wall of runoff down from the hills this morning. The elephant was swept away around 10:50am, and for a while nobody knew where it had ended up.
Its mahout and villagers in the area started searching immediately, wading along the rising water without much luck, and eventually called in outside help as it became clear this wasn’t something they could manage alone. The water kept climbing the whole time, which didn’t make the search any easier.
Two rescue teams, Elephant Rescue and Doo Chang Doo Doi Chiang Mai (run by the Saen family, longtime elephant keepers), got their gear ready but held off going in. The current was moving fast enough that sending people into it seemed like trading one emergency for two, so they waited for the go-ahead from whoever was managing the site.
By 11:38am the elephant had been pulled onto dry land, alive. Its mahout still couldn’t reach it, though. Water levels hadn’t dropped and the current was still too strong to cross safely. The rescue teams are on standby with their transport vehicle in case the elephant needs to be moved to an elephant hospital.
