Guest guest Posted July 31, 2001 Report Share Posted July 31, 2001 - <kuma <ar-news Monday, 30 July, 2001 23:53 (SG) Trainer gored by zoo elephant Singapore The New Paper 30 July 2001 'It lunged at him & tusks tore into his body' A trainer, gored by an elephant at the Night Safari on Friday, is in hospital with serious injuries. ANDRE YEO finds out what happened Jul 30, 2001 ELEPHANT trainer Gopal Krishnan, 45, loves the huge animals under his care. As much as he loves his two children. Even more, says his family. But last Friday, on his daughter's 18th birthday, the Night Safari's only bull elephant turned on him. Mr Gopal was wounded in the chest. His ribs were broken and his lung was punctured. He is now battling for his life at the intensive care unit of Tan Tock Seng Hospital. Mr Bernard Harrison, 49, the chief executive officer of Wildlife Reserve Singapore, which manages the zoo, the Night Safari and the Jurong BirdPark, said the incident happened at around 5pm. Mr Gopal and two other mahouts, or elephant handlers, were walking Chawang, the 24-year-old elephant from Malaysia, near the entrance of the safari. Mr Harrison said: " Chawang was just finishing its walk. Bulls must be walked by two mahouts and it was walking with three that day. " Bull elephants are known to have an unpredictable nature. So, Chawang is taken for its walk around 4pm, when the safari is not yet open. It opens at 7.30pm. Mr Gopal, who has 25 years' experience in this line of work, was walking in front of the 2,500kg elephant, which was carrying a large log between its trunk and tusks, which is part of its daily exercise. A mahout was on its left and another behind him on the right. But Chawang suddenly stopped, dropped the log and went for Mr Gopal. Swinging its powerful trunk, Chawang coiled it around Mr Gopal. Mr Harrison said: " He knocked Gopal over, pulled him in, threw him to the ground and lunged at him as he was on the ground. " The tusks tore into Mr Gopal's body, below the chest area. His colleagues went into action at once to save Mr Gopal, who was bleeding and screaming in pain. Mr Harrison said one of them, Mr S Ravindran, swung his ankus (a stick with a blunt hook at the end, used to discipline elephants) at Chawang's left hind leg. The animal was struck somewhere around the knee and let out a loud cry, as Mr Ravindran pulled it away from Mr Gopal. " It can be quite painful for the elephant, " said Mr Harrison. " Chawang backed off and was very quiet after that. Ravindran helped a lot. He didn't lose his cool. " Mr Gopal was rushed to Tan Tock Seng Hospital where he had surgery that night. He suffered injuries to his sternum (breast bone), ribs and one of his lungs. He also had a high fever. He has been in intensive care since then, and last night, his family told The New Paper that his condition is unstable. But his wife, Madam Letchumi, 40, a housewife, said her husband of 19 years would have been unhappy about Chawang being hurt - even if it was to save his life. She said: " My husband is a simple and humble man who loves elephants very much. Even more than us. " He must see the elephants every day. He has stayed away from home for days, to be with the elephants at the zoo. " Once, I had to call him and scold him to come home because the children were sick. " She does not blame the elephant for the attack. Said Ms Komathi, their daughter: " We see it as the Elephant God saving my father from something worse, and that is why it happened. " We believe he will walk out of this hospital. We leave it up to God. " The couple also have a 10-year-old son. Madam Letchumi said Mr Gopal prays to Lord Ganesha every day. The head of Lord Ganesha, the Hindu god of knowledge and the remover of obstacles, resembles that of an elephant. Last Thursday was Madam Letchumi's birthday. And, the next day was her daughter's. When the phone call came, informing them of the accident, Ms Komathi became hysterical. Said the ITE student: " I snatched the phone from my mother and I screamed and banged my head against the wall when I heard the news. " I called out to him at the hospital and he tried to speak. But he couldn't. " Ms Komathi said her father is a loving man who always makes time for animals, feeding stray cats and dogs. She said: " He buys food for the elephants and will rush out of the house if he hears that they are sick or injured. " When they gave birth, he would talk about how cute their calves were and how they could walk. He has taken many pictures with them. " She said his father wouldn't normally use the ankus on the elephants. " He uses his hand to hit them as he doesn't want to hurt them. That is why he will be upset if he hears they used the stick to hit the elephant to save him. " ---------- ---- What the zoo says... THE Night Safari has taken Friday's incident very seriously, and Chawang has been put in a high security confinement area as a safety precaution. Mr Bernard Harrison said they were conducting an inquiry into what happened. He said: " The welfare and safety of our staff is paramount to us, and I will do anything to ensure they are free from injury. " The safety of our guests is also important, which is why we walk the bulls only during closing hours. " This is the first serious incident involving an elephant. There were no serious injuries in the other incidents. We really don't know why it happened. " Male elephants have been known to turn violent when they come into musth every year. This is the time when the secretion of an oily substance from a gland between the eye and the ear causes the elephant to be aggressive. But Mr Harrison said Chawang was not in musth, and the incident was " puzzling " . He added that as long as they were dealing with wild animals, there were some risks involved. He said: " Chawang does what he does because he is a wild animal. We won't put him down because of that. " Mr Harrison added that walking the males requires special skills and training. " You are dealing with an animal that weighs 3,000kg. So you need to have a lot of confidence and have to gain the bull's respect. " He said there are only about 42,000 Asian elephants in the wild, and they are an endangered species. The Night Safari opened in 1994 and has three female Asian elephants and one bull, Chawang, which arrived in 1983. The Singapore Zoo has another three females and a bull. Mr Robin Goh, the zoo's corporate communications assistant manager, said bulls are difficult to handle as they are bad tempered animals. That is why only the females interact with the public through elephant rides and photo-taking sessions. Mr Goh said that for the past 28 years, the zoo has had a policy of having elephant handlers in direct contact with their charges, even feeding them by hand and bathing them. He said that after Friday's incident, the zoo will have to " reconsider this policy " . ----- OTHER INCIDENTS Sept 2, 1996: Giggo, an endangered Malayan Tiger, escaped from a Night Safari enclosure after a zoo keeper left the doors open. After a 25-minute hunt, the 14-month-old tiger was shot and killed as it tried to run into a forested area. No one was injured. The keeper was sacked for his carelessness. Aug 2, 1997: A chimpanzee escaped from its enclosure at the Singapore Zoo and scratched a British tourist behind her right knee, causing her to bleed. The chimpanzee was caught by zoo staff within 10 minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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