When Elephants cried !!

[Guest guest]

Indian Express 3rd Jan,05 :

 

KHAO LAK, THAILAND, JANUARY 2: Agitated elephants felt the tsunami

coming, and their sensitivity saved about a dozen foreign tourists

from the fate of thousands killed by the giant waves.

 

``I was surprised because the elephants had never cried before,''

mahout Dang Salangam said on Sunday on Khao Lak beach.

 

The elephants started trumpeting — in a way, Dang, 36, and his wife

Kulada, 24, said could only be described as crying — at first light,

about the time an earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale

cracked open the seabed off Sumatra. The elephants soon calmed down.

But they started wailing again about an hour later and this time,

they could not be comforted despite their mahouts' attempts at

reassurance.

 

``The elephants didn't believe the mahouts. They just kept running

for the hill,'' said Wit Aniwat, 24, who collects the money from

tourists and helps them on to the back of elephants from a sturdy

wooden platform.

 

Those with tourists aboard headed for the jungle-clad hill behind

the resort beach where at least 3,800 people, more than half of them

foreigners, would soon be killed. The elephants that were not

working broke their hefty chains.

 

``Then, we saw the big wave coming and we started running,'' said

Wit. Around a dozen tourists were also running towards the hill from

the Khao Lak Merlin Resort, one of a line of hotels strung along the

10 km beach, especially popular with Scandinavians and Germans.

 

``The mahouts managed to turn the elephants to lift the tourists

on to their backs,'' said Kulada. She used her hands to describe how

the huge beasts used their trunks to pluck the foreigners from the

ground and deposit them on their backs.

 

The elephants charged up the hill through the jungle, then stopped.

The tsunami drove up to 1 km in shore from the gently sloping beach

which had been so safe for children it made Khao Lak an ideal place

for a family holiday. But it stopped short of where the elephants

stood.

 

On Sunday, the elephants were back at work giving rides to the

tourists on whom the area depends.