Date:05/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/05/stories/2008090553501600.htm

International

Elephant beats drug addiction

Smugglers lured the herd with bananas laced with heroin

KUNMING: An Asian elephant which became addicted to drugs after eating a banana smeared with heroin is headed back to Kunming after a three-year detoxification programme in China’s southernmost Hainan Province.

The 4-year-old bull elephant, Xiguang (Big Brother), became addicted in March 2005.

It was among six elephants lured by animal smugglers along the Sino-Myanmar border.

Police captured the elephants on May 8 that year.

Xiguang was sent to a wild animal protection centre in Hainan three months later, after it was confirmed to be suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

Rehabilitation experts and vets gave him injections of methadone, at five times human dosage, for a year. Xiguang fully recovered after rehabilitation.

Xiguang is expected to arrive at the Yunnan Wild Animal Park in the capital city of Kunming on Saturday after a 1,500-km journey home.

The Asian elephant is the largest land animal in Asia, with an estimated 50,000 living in the wild throughout the continent. — Xinhua