Khao Yai national park officials are set to take a boat upstream, from their station at Khun Dan Prakan Chon reservoir to Khlong Ton Sai, to scatter anti-pollution chemicals over the carcasses of eight elephants trapped among boulders after water in the creek began to smell foul.
Meanwhile, the Nakhon Nayok provincial administration has set up an ad hoc panel to test water samples from the reservoir to determine the water quality. Water from the creek and Khlong Ton Sari flows into the reservoir, which is the main source of fresh water for Nakhon Nayok province.
To date, park officials have managed to remove three dead elephants from the creek near steep Haew Narok waterfall.
A 50 metre long and 3 metre wide net has been strung across Khlong Ton Sai to trap the dead elephants, in case any of them are washed downstream by the strong currents from the waterfall, allowing officials to retrieve the carcasses for proper disposal.
Alternatively, they can wait for the water level in Khlong Ton Sai to recede before removing them.
Park officials, however, will temporarily suspend their retrieval efforts tomorrow due to rising water levels. Meanwhile, officials have been deployed to watch over carcasses.
