THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

Animals in danger as Safari World submerged

Animals in danger as Safari World submerged

Flood water inundated half of the 500-rai Safari World on Tuesday evening after the upstream Klong Sam Wa sluice gate was raised to 1 metre from the normal 0.8 metre after a road was blocked by angry residents.

The water level in the wildlife park, which was 50 centimetres deep on average and up to a metre in some areas yesterday, put tens of thousands of animals at the open zoo – many of them valuable rare species – in danger.

Litti Kewkacha, executive vice president of Safari World, which is listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, said the flood water had engulfed the entire Safari Park zone, which accounts for 50 per cent of the zoo’s area, while Marine Park, which occupies the remainder, had yet to find itself under water. 
 
With both zones closed yesterday, Safari Park’s opening will be decided on a daily basis. The owner plans to reopen the unaffected Marine Park today.
 
The wildlife park’s three parking zones were flooded overnight on Tuesday. “Our priority is to control the flood water in our complex and protect more than 1,000 wild animals, including deer, antelopes, zebras and caged buffaloes, as well as 60,000 fish and more than 10,000 birds, living at our Safari World complex from the floods. 
 
“Most of the animals in the Safari Park zone have been moved into the dry area, where they can stay and adjust to the water very well. However, our key focus has been to save high-value and rare animals, such as 120 giraffes and more than 20 belugas and dolphins,” Litti said. 
 
He added that Safari World had one of the largest herds of giraffes in captivity in the world.
 
“We cannot estimate the cost of the damage at the moment. We need to monitor the flood situation very carefully day by day,” he said.
 
The executive said Safari World estimated its revenue loss to date at between Bt100 million and Bt150 million because of the flooding, which had caused the number of visitors to drop by almost 80 per cent. 
 
It normally attracts between 3,000 and 4,000 visitors per day, of whom 80 per cent are foreign tourists, mainly from Europe, Russia, the Middle East and India.
 
“Since the flooding crisis, all our Thai visitors have disappeared, as they are in no mood to entertain themselves. All function activities, such as family days and staff parties, have been cancelled,” Litti said.
 
He said that if the flooding lasted a long time, foreign visitors would also be seriously affected, as they would cancel their trips to Bangkok, especially during the high season. 
 
 The government should try to raise the confidence of foreign tourists, telling them that Bangkok will return to normal as soon as possible when the flood waters recede, he added.
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