Search for: suraj

Year of rescue: 2015 Age at the time of rescue: 45 years old Sex: Male Personality traits: Very calm Recognisable features: One-eared elephant; lost presumably when poached from his herd in the wild Present health condition: Healthy; not undergoing any treatment except regular footbaths Facility: Elephant Conservation[…]

Every day during evening hours, our visitors and volunteers are left awestruck with the sight of a magnificent tusker silently walking to the centre after his evening walk.  His long, regal tusks never fail to catch one’s attention and leave them fixed in their tracks wanting an uninterrupted sight of him.  Our dear Suraj, however, remains[…]

Suraj arrived at our rescue centre on Christmas eve in the winter of 2015, in what was nothing short of a Christmas miracle, following a face-off with a hostile mob determined to keep him imprisoned in the temple that had chained and abused him for nearly his entire life. Since his arrival at the Elephant Conservation and Care Centre in Mathura,[…]

On December 24 last year, an elephant's life changed forever. Up until that day, the 45+-year-old tusker named Suraj had been wasting away in a tiny, depressing temple room in Maharashtra — chained up as a captive spectacle for temple visitors (see photo below). When our veterinarians helped emancipate Suraj, they found an elephant suffering[…]

Rescued in December 2015 from a lifetime of abuse and negligence as a confined temple elephant in Satara, Maharashtra, Suraj, the 45 year old one –eared tusker is now on a steady road to recovery in his new home at the Elephant Conservation and Care Centre (ECCC) in Mathura. When the Wildlife SOS Rescue team first found him, they were[…]

Warm sunlight reflects of his magnificent tusks, as the large bull elephant steps gingerly off the Wildlife SOS Elephant Ambulance and into the Elephant Conservation & Care Centre, Mathura. For Suraj, whose name literally translates to ‘sun’ in Hindi, sunshine is as special a treat as the sugarcane and bananas being offered to coax him off […]

Suraj is a male temple elephant who is about 45 years old. Sometime in his past, his entire left ear was ripped off. It was so long ago, that no one remembers how it happened, but we suspect it could have been when he was captured from the wild as a baby and separated from his mother and herd. When our team arrived at the temple recently to[…]

Suraj Pal has worked with Wildlife SOS for four years, acting as an elephant keeper at Wildlife SOS’ Elephant Care and Conservation Centre, Mathura. His understanding and respect for elephants is well-known among the staff at ECCC, and we thought we’d talk to him to find out a little more. How did you come to work for Wildlife SOS? I joined[…]

As the bright sunshine pierces through the dense fog and mist of the morning, our elephants can be seen pausing amidst their walks to bask under the sun at the Wildlife SOS Elephant Conservation and Care Centre. The month of December, with its unpredictable and delightful rainfall, prepared us all for a chilly winter that was lurking around the[…]

Anybody who has worked with elephants goes on to discover that bulls are much more temperamental than females. They are more independent, curious and spend much of their time in a solitary manner, preferring their solace more than anything. Our magnificent resident tusker Suraj displays few of these traits, however, highlighting the extent to[…]