Bhairahawa, Dec. 18 -- Two Asian elephants born and raised in Chitwan were flown to Qatar on Wednesday evening.

The jumbos-Khagendra Prasad (male elephant aged six) and Rudrakali (female elephant aged seven)-transported overland from Chitwan to Bhairahawa, departed aboard a Qatar Airways cargo aircraft at around 5:30 pm. The pair will be housed in an air-conditioned enclosure inside Al Khor Zoo, on the outskirts of Doha, where Qatari authorities say they will be raised in a carefully controlled environment designed to minimise heat stress.

Both elephants were born at the elephant breeding centre in Khorsor, Chitwan. As they were bid farewell at the airport, officials and conservationists garlanded them with marigolds and applied vermili...