An elephant who stepped on a landmine in Burma walked for five days and swam across a river with a badly injured foot to return to Thailand for treatment, veterinarians said yesterday.
Maekapae was about 10 kilometres inside Buma working in the logging industry when she was injured, said Soraida Salwala, founder of Friends of the Asian Elephant, an NGO in Lampang province in northern Thailand.
Her handler led her back into Thailand, through the jungle and across the Moi river.
"She travelled with her wounded foot from the jungle and had to swim across the Moi river as the border checkpoint remains closed," Soraida said.
It is expected to take five or six months for Maekapae to recover because about 40 per cent of her foot was damaged in the explosion, said the hospital's chief veterinarian, Preecha Puangkham.
She is the 13th elephant treated for landmine injuries at the hospital since 1997.