Elephant's painting of herself and friend sells for Rs 4 lakh in Thailand; Watch

Talk about sudden fortunes, a painting by Thailand's 9-year-old elephant was sold for whopping 4 lakh rupees. Nong Thanwa, an expert elephant from Maetong Elephant Camp in Chiang Maiz Thailand painted a picture of herself and her friend, which was sold for approximately $5.5k (about Rs. 4.10lakh) in an online fundraiser for elephants on July 7.

A New York-based news organization NowThis shared a video of Thanwa on its Twitter handle. In the video, we can see Thanwa painting a picture of herself and her friend Dumbo. The painting also includes texts, 'TW loves Dumbo'. She used her trunk to hold the paintbrush and completed the picture according to the directions of her trainer. The completed painting was a beautiful silhouette of TW and her friend Dumbo.

The tweet has cumulated over 84.4k views and 600comments within a day. While many adored the beauty of the painting, netizens expressed concerns over the scornful routine these mammals endure to gain perfection. The video received considerable backlash from social media users. "Dude is using pain to make the elephant perform. You can see it in the video. Please train your producers and editors to better-scrutinized content," wrote one user. "Delete this tweet unless it's to highlight animal cruelty and abuse," wrote another.

Thailand and Elephants

Elephants are adorable fuzzy-headed yet intelligent animals. They learn tricks and skills faster than any other mammals. However, more than often they are not appreciated for their smartness and general connectivity with humans. One such country is Thailand. It thrives on elephant tourism. More than 7000 privately or publicly captive elephants are used to entertain tourists in the country. According to a report by AsianAge, elephants in Thailand are food-deprived, separated from their mothers, and/or jabbed with metals hooks in order to be tamed before they are sold to tourism sites, which often boldly advertise their 'cruelty-conscious' sanctuaries.

(Input: Twitter, NowThis)