Motala's Plight

Chien-Chi Chang

Magnum Photos

On August 15, 1999, Motala, a Thai elephant, stepped on a landmine while hauling logs on the Burmese jungle along the Burma-Thai border, the scene of a half-century of insurgencies. Ten days later, she was admitted to the Elephant Hospital in Lampang, 510 kilometers north of Bangkok. A team of 20 Thai veterinarians and surgeons operated on her shredded left leg for three hours. The amputation which involved cutting away about 30 centimeters of her foreleg, was unprecedented in Thailand and veterinarians hope eventually to fit a prosthesis when the wound has healed. Thousand of landmines and booby traps have been planted in the Burma jungle by ethnic rebels waging war against the military government in Burma. Managing to stand on three legs, Motala, a 38 year-old cow elephant, is waiting for surgery to amputate part of her foreleg.

Chien-Chi Chang, "Motala's Plight ," in POYi Archive, Item #30362, http://archive.poy.org/items/show/30362 (accessed November 23, 2024).