Elephant airlift ends impasse

Press, 18 February 1986, Page 6

Elephant airlift ends impasse

By

JOSEPH de RIENZO

of, Reuter (through NZPA) Bangkok Plai Prathupha, a 1400 kg elephant, was flown from the jungles of northern Thailand yesterday to a new home in Sri Lanka — in a jumbo-sized United States “diplomatic pouch.” The U-year-old elephant was loaded into the hold of a United States Navy Hercules transport plane at dawn for a sixhour flight to Colombo, said cargo handlers at Chiang Mai airport 700 km from Bangkok. Plai Prathupha’s safe arrival in Colombo ends a four-year dilemma for Sri Lanka — how to take

receipt of a Thai gift of a free elephant. , A United States Embassy spokesman, Larry Thomas, said the ele-phant-lift was a gesture of good will to the Thai and Sri Lankan Governments. Plai Prathupha was a reluctant passenger and refused to be enticed by air crewmen and loaders into the a metal cage fixed in the plane’s hold, handlers said. Elephants’ trunks are apparently sensitive to aviation fuel fumes and Plai Prathupha tried to call off the trip before he reached the cargo bay ramp. Sri Lanka’s Ambassador

to Thailand, Mr G. D. I. G. Seneviratne, who approached the United States for help last year, said he was relieved that the elephant had finally got to Colombo.

It will be groomed as the bearer of the Buddha’s tooth in annual religious ceremonies in the Sri Lankan town of Kandy.

The flight of the elephant involved a number of weighty factors. Diplomats said they had to consider India’s sensitivity about United States military operations in .the Indian Ocean, Washington’s relations with Thailand and Sri Lanka, and possible charges in Wash-

ington about the misuse of taxpayers’ money. No direct cargo ship service links Thailand and Sri Lanka and the elephant was too large to be handled by commercial air. freighters. The Lockheed Cl3o Hercules, workhouse of the United States military, was pressed into service after Mr Seneviratne said his Government was prepared to make , an exception to its normal ban on American military, planes flying over Sri Lanka. Some United States diplomats say the elephant’s flight might do more for Washington’s image in Asia than Congressional visits.