Sita Kali’s Story.
Sita is the first elephant retired by Asian Elephant Wellness Project. Sita is a 50-year-old female Asian elephant who was wild born. As an infant she was captured from the wild and went through training to be worked in India for 40+ years.
Sita was already blind when she walked to Nepal from India 4 years ago to give safari rides in the famous tourist village of Sauraha bordering Chitwan National Park.
In April 2018 she was knocked down by another elephant and had severe injuries to her back and pelvis. She has not been well since then and has collapsed several times and had a huge infection on her left hip.
Due to Sita’s injuries she physically can no longer be used for any work. Sita Kali can not get up without assistance if she were to lie down to sleep so she sleeps standing up and leans on an iron frame that we have created for her to get sufficient rest. Her previous owner made the decision to retire her to the Asian Elephant Wellness Project.
In January of 2021 the land where Sita was living was sold. This left us in need to finding a new land and stables for Sita Kali. We contacted Direct Aid Nepal and asked if they had room for one more elephant. Less than 30 seconds after we asked founder Donna, she called to say ‘Yes! Of course bring Sita to Sapana, now!’.
On Feb 9th 2021 Sita walked to Sapana Village to join the 6 other retired elephants of Direct Aid Nepal. Sita moved with her mahout Jagay who has been with her for almost three years and his brother, Aslam, joined our team to help with Sita within a couple months too. Jagay knows Sita very well and enjoys making herbal remedies to help with her digestion and massages for her sore legs. Jagay is Sita’s eyes. He is always watching to make sure she does not get herself into trouble walking somewhere that is dangerous for her.
Sita immediately began enjoying the freedom during the day of the grasslands to graze in and the river to splash and drink from whenever she wants. Sita has enjoyed meeting and trying to make new friends with the other elephants at Sapana Village. On March 6th she met and became friends with Jaymati Kali, an older elephant who had been staying at Sapana while she was very ill. They quickly became close friends and Sita is Jaymati’s shadow.
So, we rescued Jaymati too…
Our founder, Dr Trish London, spends as much time as she can in Nepal working with Sita Kali and developing partnerships to ensure we can support as many elephants and mahouts in the area as possible.
Jaymati Kali’s Story.
Jaymati is an 80-90 year old elephant. Until just last year, she had been used for jungle safaris in Nepal for 8+ years. Prior to working in Nepal she reportedly was a logging elephant in Assam, India. She had three calves while she was in Nepal. Her daughter works at a hotel 15 km from her and her other two calves were sold to India.
When Jaymati was very sick, her owners asked if she could move to Direct Aid Nepal. She quickly began spending all of her time with our Sita Kali. They have formed a very close friendship and are never further than a couple feet apart. Jaymati has helped Sita, who is blind, to explore her land at Sapana Village. Thanks to Jaytmati, Sita is now going into the deep water in the near by river for the first time in almost 3 years. They spend their days grazing and dusting side by side.
It is quite amazing she is still alive.
She is a resilient grandma who wants to enjoy her retirement. She's not ready to give up just yet, so neither will we….
Elephants get six sets of teeth throughout their life with their last set of teeth usually falling out in their 70s. Jaymati reportedly lost her last set of teeth 3-5 years ago. This past winter was very hard on Jaymati as she had several episodes of colon impaction causing painful and dangerous constipation.
In addition to having no teeth, Jaymati had edema or water build up along her neck and belly that developed from possible low blood protein or liver disease. With daily massages and liver medications and improved diet this edema is slowly improving.
She is also anemic and receives daily iron supplements too. Similar to people when they get older, her skin is very thin and friable, she has a couple wounds all over her body from where she has scratched herself on trees and old wounds from her riding days.
Jaymati needs more and different foods than the other elephants. She needs soft foods that are easy to digest. We have been cooking her 25 kg of rice with chickpeas, cabbage, pumpkins and molasses to feed her three times a day. In addition we purchase green grass for her which is easier to digest than the usual rice straw fed to elephants. She is also given a variety of soft produce such as watermelons, pineapple, jackfruit, papaya, cucumbers, apples, bananas, tomatoes cabbage and cauliflower. We will continue cutting her bamboo and branches for the leaves for her to eat for essential nutrients only provided by a natural diet.
