LAMPANG, Thailand — An elephant who stepped on a land mine 10 years ago was fitted Saturday for a permanent artificial leg.
Motola became a symbol of the plight of today’s elephants, and her injury sparked international sympathy and donations.
Experts in Thailand were making a cast of the 48-year-old pachyderm’s injured left front leg for a plastic prosthetic limb, which was to be attached later Saturday.
“I do hope she will accept the new leg. It would be wonderful to see Motola and Baby Mosha walking together side-by-side,” said Soraida Salwala, secretary-general of the Friends of the Asian Elephant, a nongovernmental group.
Mosha, also a land mine victim, became the world’s first elephant with an artificial leg in 2007. Soraida said Mosha, now a 3-year-old, is faring well and has outgrown three prostheses.
Motola was injured in 1999 while working at a logging camp along the Myanmar-Thailand border, a region peppered with land mines.
