The “Piedra del Elefante” rock , located in the El Cielo biosphere reserve , has managed to survive all sorts of hardships and natural phenomena for over 65 million years , but not a visit from the Rubio García family, from the state of Nuevo León , who were bold enough to leave a signature, damaging the natural monument.
Through their Facebook account, the Ecologic Interpretative Center (CIE) exposed the family for the damage they caused to the elephant-shaped rock.
“We don’t want to attract this type of tourism. The fact that someone would drive a vehicle to the lower part of Gómez Farías and walk to the Elephant’s Rock just to vandalize the rock formation in such a way is outrageous,” claimed the institution through a Facebook post.
Furthermore, the Ecologic Center indicated that there was no highway structure leading to the site, since it is found within an ecologic reserve with an ecosystem ranging from rainforest to semi-desert forest.
“By laying out dirt roads, we seek to avoid for a larger number of vehicles to arrive at the site and avoid any sort of turmoil. It makes us feel powerless to see this type of images in places that are of difficult access and which have remained intact for 65 million years.”
The institution added that the vandals had even written their last name and place of origin.
The CIE asked Facebook users to share the post in order to raise awareness among the Mexican people and promote environmental education, as well as responsible tourism.
“This is outrageous and embarrassing,” the post concluded.
Social network users were recently able to locate two members of the Rubio García family who allegedly damaged the Elephant Rock.
Oscar Rubio García
was one of them. Through his Facebook account, he had publicly celebrated the idea of visiting the El Cielo biosphere reserve.
Another family member was Alexa Dávila , who shared that she was happy to travel to Gómez Farías.
Whether the CIE plans to take legal action remains to be seen and the members of the Rubio García family have closed their social media accounts.
dm