Today was the day I was most looking forward to which was going to the wildlife sos elephant sanctuary and then onto the bear sanctuary as well. After watching Paul o'grady go to both places last year I knew it was something I wanted to do as soon as I knew I was coming to India.
I was up and down in reception by 7am to be picked up by the taxi. The journey took forever we finally arrived at 11.40. My god the amount of toll roads in India it seemed like we were stopping all the time.
We finally made it to the elephants first I started off by signing the declaration then going out to meet the female elephants (visitors aren't allowed to meet the males due to them being overly aggressive at the moment due to too much testosterone).
I started off by meeting 5 elephants Suzy, asha, Priya peanut and coconut. The wildlife sos employees explained how each of them had been treated in the past and which ailments still affect them now for example asha looks after Suzy who is now blind.
We then went to meet maya who I got to hand feed vegetables to. They are such intelligent animals she doesn't like carrots as much and as soon as you place one in her trunk it's thrown on the floor until there is nothing else left.
We then went on to feed the other elephants and watch them being bathed again we learnt more about their intelligence, in a pen of two one loves baths and goes straight in when it's her turn the other walks to the other end of the pen to try and keep away from it.
We then moved onto laxmi who is one of the smallest elephants she's 21 and was used as a begging elephant so therefore was fed on junk food until she was rescued she has now lost all the extra weight but still has saggy skin (I think most of us know all about this). Again we got to feed her some fruit vegetables and sugar canes.
After feeding and learning about the elephants it was onto the sloth bear sanctuary.
Sloth bears otherwise known as dancing bears were used in India to provide entertainment to tourists, however, to provide this entertainment they were subjected to being poached from their mothers at just a few weeks old they then had their nose pierced and a hot poker shoved through making them stand up right and 'dance' for the public to watch. Resulting in the bears being kept up on two feet meaning most of them have arthritis and the scars from the piercings will never heal.
Also a lot of them are so traumatised they still sway now when they hear music. Luckily this is now illegal in India but the bears are still being poached for other uses.
As we walked round the sanctuary you leave that wildlife sos don't just rescue bears and elephants but lots of endangered wildlife for example they have deer running round the park which eat the bear poo they also have a 24hour emergency line to rescue any wild animal which is injured or remove it before locals injure it.
After visiting the two places it was time for the long journey back but my driver had other ideas he decided I needed lunch so took me to a restaurant he knew called pinch of spice. The food was amazing I had cottage cheese which was more like hallomi in a tomato and gravy curry sauce with butter naan. The naan bread is nothing like you get in the UK it's so thin compared to what we are used to and much more toasted.
Finally now was the journey home he decided to go on the express highway which was less busy and no horns until we got back to Delhi which is now in rush hour so the traffic is 100times worse than normal horns blaring the whole time, but we got back to the hotel just a bit longer than 12hours after we left.
I was up and down in reception by 7am to be picked up by the taxi. The journey took forever we finally arrived at 11.40. My god the amount of toll roads in India it seemed like we were stopping all the time.
We finally made it to the elephants first I started off by signing the declaration then going out to meet the female elephants (visitors aren't allowed to meet the males due to them being overly aggressive at the moment due to too much testosterone).
I started off by meeting 5 elephants Suzy, asha, Priya peanut and coconut. The wildlife sos employees explained how each of them had been treated in the past and which ailments still affect them now for example asha looks after Suzy who is now blind.
We then went to meet maya who I got to hand feed vegetables to. They are such intelligent animals she doesn't like carrots as much and as soon as you place one in her trunk it's thrown on the floor until there is nothing else left.
Feeding maya.
We then moved onto laxmi who is one of the smallest elephants she's 21 and was used as a begging elephant so therefore was fed on junk food until she was rescued she has now lost all the extra weight but still has saggy skin (I think most of us know all about this). Again we got to feed her some fruit vegetables and sugar canes.
After feeding and learning about the elephants it was onto the sloth bear sanctuary.
Sloth bears otherwise known as dancing bears were used in India to provide entertainment to tourists, however, to provide this entertainment they were subjected to being poached from their mothers at just a few weeks old they then had their nose pierced and a hot poker shoved through making them stand up right and 'dance' for the public to watch. Resulting in the bears being kept up on two feet meaning most of them have arthritis and the scars from the piercings will never heal.
Also a lot of them are so traumatised they still sway now when they hear music. Luckily this is now illegal in India but the bears are still being poached for other uses.
As we walked round the sanctuary you leave that wildlife sos don't just rescue bears and elephants but lots of endangered wildlife for example they have deer running round the park which eat the bear poo they also have a 24hour emergency line to rescue any wild animal which is injured or remove it before locals injure it.
Johnny the sloth bear enjoying a nap the scars visible on his nose.
One of the many deer running round the park.
Finally now was the journey home he decided to go on the express highway which was less busy and no horns until we got back to Delhi which is now in rush hour so the traffic is 100times worse than normal horns blaring the whole time, but we got back to the hotel just a bit longer than 12hours after we left.
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