by Suvidha Bhatnagar
Wildlife SOS is proudly celebrating “Be Kind to Animals Week” from 5th May to 10th May. It was a tough call to select pictures and experiences from thousands of supporters worldwide. A boy named Rohan made this challange pretty easy for us. Rohan Joshua Woodcock is a 9 year old child who visited Wildlife SOS’s Elephant Conservation and Care Centre along with his family. His innocence and interest towards the depleting wildlife is worth sharing. He spent time with all the elephants and gave Chanchal a scrub bath. Here is what the little one has to say, his creativity has won our heart.
Wildlife SOS is an excellent place to go because you can do different things you cannot do in a zoo. When we got there we first went to see the rescued bears that had been used as dancing bears by the kalandars; there were a massive 250 of them! This is the first time I have ever seen a bear in my life. They had lots of thick, brown fur, sharp, curved claws for climbing, soft, padded paws and a very cute face. Next we went on a boat ride down the Yamuna River. We were about to turn the boat around then suddenly we saw an enormous flock of flamingos dancing on the river bank. After a while they all took off and were flying as if they were 50 fighter planes about to attack the small cars on the bumpy ground. Not long after, we turned the boat around and started heading back.
Then we went to the place where the elephants were being kept. They had been rescued from the circus. At the circus spiked clamps were put around their feet and the people would hit them and say down to make them sit down and listen. First we saw two giant female elephants called Laxmi and Chanchal going for a bath in a big pool of water and we got to scrub them; their skin was scaly. After we scrubbed them they got out of the pool and we fed them some watermelons. When I put a watermelon in the elephant’s mouth, in one bite the whole watermelon was gone! The elephants then went out for their afternoon 10km walk and we went back home. I think this was a really fantastic trip! Lets come together and be kind to animals all over the world.
