A temple in Kandy city of Sri Lanka has abruptly moved a Thai elephant, gifted to the country in 1979, to an unknown location, although it has made an appointment with the Thai delegation to visit the animal.

Pratupa, 45, is one of three animals donated to this South Asian nation by Thailand as “friendship ambassadors” and is the oldest.

Kanchana Silpa-archa, a Thai delegation member, wrote on her Facebook page that she and the delegation were scheduled to visit Pratupa at the Sri Dalada Maligawa temple in Kandy city on July 1, but learnt just a few hours before that the jumbo had been moved to new unknown location.

The temple cited the move is because Pratupa is in season. Kanchana, a former Suphan Buri MP, said she wants to observe the conditions of the two remaining Thai elephants in Sri Lanka, after another, Sak Surin, donated to Sri Lanka 22 years ago, was evacuated due to ill health and arrived in Thailand on Sunday. The jumbo became ill after years of maltreatment and hardship.

According to Kanchana, she was informed unofficially that the temple had moved Pratupa out of fear that the Thai delegation would also want to take Pratupa back to Thailand.

Another member of the Thai delegation is Rungnapar Pattanavibool, deputy director general of the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department. They were in Sri Lanka to facilitate the return of Sak Surin.

Kanchana said she has asked the Thai Embassy in Colombo and animal protection organisations in Sri Lanka to help check on Pratupa’s welfare.

On July 1, the Thai delegation had opportunity to visit Sri Narong, the other Thai elephant gifted to Siri Lanka, who is staying in a temple in Kataragama city. They found that the animal is in good condition.

Sri Narong was sent to Sri Lanka, together with Sak Surin, and they were was separated. Sri Narong’s mahout told the Thai delegation that he has taken care of the pachyderm since the animal arrived in Siri Lanka. It would attend parades to celebrate Buddha relics about five or six times a year, so that it would not work too hard.

The observations revealed that Sri Narong is in good condition, friendly and healthy. The same mahout said that Sri Narong used to join parades with Sak Surin and he noticed that the Sak Surin was not healthy and believed that his mahout had insufficient knowledge to take care of the jumbo and paid no attention to his suffering.