Chitwan/Kathmandu, April 5
A captive elephant in Sauraha outside the Chitwan National Park has been found to have its trunk cut off.
The 45-year-old Chanchalkali’s trunk was cut off by an unidentified group at around 11:30 pm last night, according to Dipendra Khatiwada, a tourism entrepreneur there.
Khatiwada says the incident was an attempt to kill the elephant.
Meanwhile, some social media users have suspected the mahouts might have been behind the incident as the elephant was known to be a difficult case.
“The police will find out the truth, but it proves a sheer level of cruelty is being imposed on captive elephants,” activist Shristi Singh Shrestha says.
The local police say they are looking into the case.
The elephants captivated by hoteliers in Chitwan are treated like slaves as they are put to work tirelessly until they can. Once they are no longer able to work, the elephants are sold back to India and new and younger elephants are bought. There have even been cases of elephants being discarded and left to die due to a lack of accountability by all the stakeholders involved.
