Asian elephant kicks heroin addiction after 3yr rehab!

New Delhi, September 4 (ANI): An Asian elephant in China is being sent to the Yunnan Wild Animal Park in Kunming city, following a three-year detoxification program to cure his addiction to drugs.

Four-year-old male elephant, Xiguang, became addicted to drugs in March 2005, after eating a banana smeared with heroin.

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According to the China Daily, he was among six elephants lured by animal smugglers along the Sino-Myanmar border.

The report reveals that the smugglers used the bananas as bait for the animals, which were being brought into China's Dehong Autonomous Prefecture of Dai and Jingpo nationalities.

The newspaper further said that the police captured the elephants in May the same year, and Xiguang was sent to a wild animal protection centre in Hainan three months later, after he was confirmed to be suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

For a year, rehabilitation experts gave Xiguang injections of methadone, at five times human doses, and the elephant has now fully recovered.

Xiguang is expected to arrive at the Yunnan Wild Animal Park on Saturday after a 1,500-km journey home. (ANI)