Kerala introduces ambulance service for wild elephants injured in the forests

For the first time in the state, the Kerala Forest Department will launch an emergency ambulance service for wild elephants in the forest area of Muthanga and Wayand. 

This move comes after many reports of wild elephants getting injured and the need for an ambulance which can be used to transport wild elephants, injured or diseased, from the forest to hospitals and bring them back.

The ambulance will be a modified lorry.

Manoramaonline reports that the ambulance can also to be used to transport domesticated elephants that would be needed to dissuade wild elephants from entering inhabited lands.

The ambulance will have cranes, ropes, and animal movement restricting facility. The vehicle also will have food, water and medicine storage in case of emergencies.

Till now, vehicles were brought in from Tamil Nadu each time an injured or diseased elephants was reported inside the forests, and the tuskers would usually lose their life before the vehicles reached.