It’s been a year since we rescued Raju on the 4th of July, 2014 and brought him to our Elephant Conservation and Care Center in Mathura from the streets of Allahabad.
. Join us in his journey of one year with no tears as the Wildlife SOS team members talk about their experiences with Raju & his shenanigans!
An elephant that was kept in chains for 50 years and abused by a drug addict who used the animal beg in India has been freed. Raju had been beaten and starved since being poached from the wild as a baby and resorted to eating paper and plastic to fill his stomach. The chains and spikes wrapped around his legs had left him with chronic wounds and arthritis and he was in almost constant pain. But now he is walking free for the first time after a daring rescue by conservationists with a court order by the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department to take the elephant from his abusive owner.
The charity took Raju in the middle of the night on Thursday, supported by police and state officials. The elephant’s mahout and previous owner tried to stop him being taken by adding more chains and having people block the roads for the rescue lorry. Experts worked for hours to gain the elephant’s trust with fruit and encouragement until they could get him into the van that would take him to a sanctuary.
When Raju was being rescued, volunteers said they saw tears rolling down his face. Pooja Binepal, from Wildlife SOS UK, said: “The team were astounded to see tears roll down his face during the rescue. It was so incredibly emotional for all of us. “We knew in our hearts he realised he was being freed. “Elephants are not only majestic, but they are highly intelligent animals, who have been proven to have feelings of grief, so we can only imagine what torture half a century has been like for him.”
For 50 years, Raju the elephant was abused, held shackled in spiked chains and forced to live off scraps from passing tourists. All that changed when he was rescued last weekend by wildlife conservationists who said the animal cried when he was finally set free.
Wildlife SOS, a group established in 1995 to protect endangered wildlife in India, set out to rescue Raju on the night of July 2. Raju is around 50 years old and was likely captured as a baby and bought and sold many times over the course of his life. He was forced to work as a begging elephant in Allahabad. His legs were bound in spiked chains that made walking difficult and left him with chronic wounds. He was also beaten.
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