These incredible pictures show the moment an elephant who was held in chains and beaten and abused for fifty years cried as he was released to freedom.
Raju the elephant was left bleeding from spiked shackles and living on hand-outs from passing tourists after he was captured and tied up by his ‘owner’.
Raju the elephant was said to cry tears of joy as he was released from spiked shackles in the Uttar Pradesh area of India after fifty years of torture
The mission took place under the cover of darkness, as fewer people would be around for the dangerous rescue and the animal could be protected from the searing heat of the sun.
Pooja Binepal, the charity’s UK spokesman, described the rescue as ‘incredibly emotional’ for the team.
She said: ‘Raju has spent the past 50 years living a pitiful existence in chains 24 hours a day, an act of intolerable cruelty.
Every day, the majestic animal was forced to hold out his trunk and beg for coins from passers-by – surviving only on plastic and paper for food
The elephant was left bleeding from spiked shackles and living on hand-outs from passing tourists after he was captured by his ‘owner’
Wildlife SOS vet Dr Yaduraj Khadpekar tries to free Raju from the chains which he was kept in for 50 years
Wildlife SOS founder Kartick Satyanarayan said: ‘The chains around his legs had spikes which were cutting into his flesh – and each time he moved puss would ooze out of wounds. Pain and brutality were all he knew’
‘The team were astounded to see tears roll down his face during the rescue. It was so incredibly emotional for all of us. We knew in our hearts he realised he was being freed.
‘Elephants are not only majestic, but they are highly intelligent animals, who have been proven to have feelings of grief, so we can only imagine what torture half a century has been like for him.
Once rescued, he was loaded into an open-top lorry, given additional sedation and escorted 350 miles to the charity’s Elephant Conservation and Care Centre at Mathura
The daring rescue came exactly a year to the day since the charity was alerted to Raju’s plight by the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department in India
‘He hasn’t been fed properly and tourists started giving him sweet food items and because he was in a state of hunger and exhaustion he began eating plastic and paper.
‘His nails are severely overgrown, he has abscesses and wounds because of the shackles and continually walking on a tarmac road has led to his foot pad overgrowing.’
Once the court order was finally issued, a team led by Wildlife SOS founder Kartick Satyanarayan carried out two days of surveillance before launching the rescue.
Pooja Binepal, the charity’s UK spokesman, described the rescue as ‘incredibly emotional’ for the team
Raju, after his release, with reformed former mahout Sonu Ali who will care for him at the sanctuary
Over the weekend, Raju received emergency medical attention to his wounds as well as a bath and food