Saliya is a male in his 40s, he is owned by a temple and came to live at MEF because the temple did not have the facilities to house an elephant. He came to us happy and healthy in 2008. His mahout VeeJay is very knowledgeable and they have a good relationship and are very respectful of each other.
Saliya is a very gentle and friendly elephant but he sadly suffers with long periods of Musth meaning that he has to be kept separate from the other elephants during this time. Musth is a time when a male elephant has an enormous rush of testosterone and they suffer with pressure headaches causing them to be aggressive, its lasts from one to six months.
The restraints that we are sadly forced to use cause lots of damage to an elephants skin. Saliya is treated after every long musth period, we aim to raise enough money to build musth pen’s so that injuries such as this are not sustained by the bull elephants.
Since coming out of Musth in February 2012, Saliya has been treated for his injuries which are healing well and has wasted no time in getting to know the other elephants, joining in the enrichment program and becoming especially good friends with new girl, Seetha.








