In Sri Lanka, an elephant has settled at the Jetwing Yala hotel. For several years, he has lived there permanently. A video, published a few days ago on social networks, shows the pachyderm evolving inside the establishment.
The elephant stops at the top of a flight of stairs, then enters a large opulent room. The scene takes place inside the Jetwing Yala Hotel, a property in the Palatupana region in southeastern Sri Lanka.
The images, published on the social network Twitter a few days ago, have toured social networks and Anglo-Saxon media.
The pachyderm that we see in this video is well known to the employees of the establishment: the animal has been regularly on the grounds of the hotel or even inside it, for seven years.
“He is our most loyal customer,” jokes a spokesperson for the Sri Lankan hotel chain Jetwing, which includes the establishment where the images were shot, with the BBC, the British radio and television. The employees even gave a name to this weighty client: Natta Kota.
“Installed year round”
It all started in 2013. Natta Kota was then a baby elephant, and he occasionally visited the hotel grounds. “He spent several months here before disappearing into the wild” , continues the spokesperson.
But a few years ago, the elephant “settled in the year” in the hotel. Concretely, the pachyderm spends his days “in the shade of the brushwood” which surrounds the establishment and walks on the paths which run around it.
Sometimes “he steals fruit from cars and food from hotel kitchens” .
A barrier was installed at the entrance to the kitchens, to prevent it from entering, and human customers were warned …
“Natta Kota remains a wild elephant”
This is not the first time Natta Kota’s name has appeared on social media. A few months ago, the hotel posted a video telling its story on Facebook.
We see the elephant quietly passing in front of an office, walking in the parks bordering the establishment … In some images, customers crowd onto a terrace, phones at arm’s length, to capture images of the pachyderm standing in front of them.
But while the animal appears to have acclimatized well, even though it appears to be popular with visitors, the video ends with a warning.
“Please note that although he is a regular visitor, Natta Kota remains a wild elephant. We would like it to remain so. […] We politely ask our customers to give him space and keep a safe distance at all times. Please do not feed the animals and do not take pictures with a flash. “
The pachyderm is not the only animal visible in the region. The hotel is located on the edge of Yala National Park. 1,268 km² of brush, undergrowth and plains, according to the famous Lonely Planet travel guide . And when you visit these places, “you are almost certain to come across elephants, crocodiles, buffaloes or monkeys” …
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