Sri Lanka cracks down on owners of elephants taken from wild
(In this July 5, 2016 photo, a Sri Lankan mahout rests his hand on an iron chain that is used to tie his tamed elephant, in the backyard of his home in Baduraliya, )
In Sri Lanka, an elephant in the back yard has long been a sign of wealth, privilege and power. But these days it may also be a sign that someone is breaking the law.
Capturing wild elephants has been banned for decades here. Registration records indicate there should be only 127 elephants in captivity, most of them older. Yet they are a staple of the South Asian island nation’s 400 or so yearly processions — traditional ceremonies honoring a marriage, calling for peace or praying for rain — and in each there are always a few young elephants clumsily cantering to keep up.
“In Sri Lanka, people measure the success of the processions by the number of elephants,” said the Rev. Magalkande Sudantha, a Buddhist monk.
Despite concerns that the animals may be abused, spectators always expect a parade of elephants wearing jangling ornaments, and babies are a special attraction.
“There is no beauty in processions without elephants,” said Janaka Alwis, a 48-year-old city council employee in Gampaha, north of Colombo. “People go to watch because of the elephants, and to count them.”
(In this July 5, 2016 photo, a Sri Lankan female mahout and her husband walk with their tamed elephant across a waterway in Baduraliya)
Aware of the ongoing elephant racket, authorities have been cracking down. In the last two years, the government has confiscated 39 elephants whose owners produced either false permits or none at all. Some had paid as much as $200,000 per captured animal when a previous government was in office, according to Wildlife Minister Gamini Jayawickrama Perera.
Those facing prosecution for illegally keeping elephants include one judge and a Buddhist monk. Police are also considering charges against people suspected of rounding up wild elephants for profit.
The practice of taming wild elephants includes starving, beating and scaring them into submission, while keeping them chained up at all times, conservationists say.
(In this Oct. 20, 2016 photo, Sri Lankan traditional dancers escort a tusker known as “Nadungamuwe Tusker,” who is famous for carrying the sacred tooth relic of the temple of tooth during its annual procession, during a felicitation to the animal for his services to Buddhist temple processions in Kirindiwela village)
Taming a wild elephant is an extremely cruel experience for the animal,” said Prithviraj Fernando, who runs the Center for Conservation and Research in Sri Lanka. “Whether it’s a temple or a private person, that’s how it is done.”
The Sri Lankan elephant is one of three subspecies of Asian elephant and is found only on the teardrop-shaped Indian Ocean island. In the 19th century there were believed to be up to 14,000. That number fell to fewer than 3,000 before hunting and capture were banned. But while the population has grown since then to nearly 6,000, according to the island’s first official elephant census in 2011, they are still considered endangered and under threat from habitat loss and degradation. They are confined to small, isolated pockets of jungle and pasture in the north and the east.
For Buddhists, who make up 70 percent of the island’s 20 million population, elephants are believed to have been servants of the Buddha and even a previous incarnation of the holy man himself. Sinhalese kings rode elephants into battle. And every year, colorfully decorated tuskers carry an ornate box containing a replica of one of the Buddha’s teeth.
(May 19, 2015 file photo, Sri Lankan police officers march with a ceremonially dressed elephant calf during a Victory Day parade in Matara)
“The elephants carrying sacred relics are very fortunate. Even we don’t have that opportunity,” said housewife Kanthi Sriyalatha, 53. She said the sight of the animals is also a thrill. “Children wait in anticipation to watch processions because they want to see the elephants. ”
Conservationists said that, given the importance given to using elephants in religious ceremonies, the government should be stepping in to manage their care while ensuring no more are captured in the wild.
“We need to impose some restrictions on ourselves. There are about 30,000 Buddhist temples,” Fernando said. “If every temple wants to have a procession with an elephant, it is not possible.”
The government is planning to set up its own pool of captive animals to be hired out to temples for ceremonies.
“We have to create a pool of elephants” for processions, said Perera, the wildlife minister. “We are creating a process now for how to issue permits, how to release some of the elephant babies” to temples for their upkeep and use in processions.
Under the plan, some would be kept in a so-called elephant orphanage. But some would go to families or temples that are financially capable of feeding and caring for them.
(July 30, 2007 file photo, mahouts and others stand after controlling an elephant called Choti Mahattaya, or Little Master, who ran berserk while taking part in a religious pageant in capital Colombo)
Some elephant owners say those who claim mistreatment are acting on Western notions of conservation and animal welfare.
“Elephants living with us do better than the animals in the wild,” said Harsha Dharmawijaya, whose family has kept at least one elephant for 96 years. “We scrub their bodies and bathe them, feed them and treat their illnesses. … In a way this is a noble act.”
Some critics, however, note that Buddhism is a faith that preaches compassion for nature.
“If the Buddha was alive, would he condone what’s going on? I don’t think he would,” said Sumith Pilapitiya, a former World Bank environmental specialist who argued that the government should focus on the animals’ welfare rather than religious norms.
“In the name of Buddhism … we are ill-treating animals,” he said.
(Oct. 31, 2016 photo, Sri Lankans watch a heard of elephants at the elephant orphanage in Pinnawala)
Source : 01/11/2016 , SF GATE http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Sri-Lanka-cracks-down-on-owners-of-elephants-10426669.php#photo-11680974
A clarion call for stronger action on wildlife trade
It only takes a simple search online, to find various types of endemic species of Sri Lanka, to purchase. From various types of spiders, to snakes and lizards as well as star tortoises, rare species are available for purchase at the click of a mouse. A shocking and alarming situation for environmentalists and conservationists, the racket has been going on with valuable species being smuggled out of the country to be sold as pets or prized possessions of collectors.
Environmentalists and wildlife experts claim that the rampant illicit wildlife trade within the country has caused the rapid depletion of Sri Lanka’s wildlife resources, while also gradually turning Sri Lanka into a transit hub for international illicit wildlife trade.
Despite major busts in recent times, by various government agencies, according to them the main obstacle in combating and curbing the illicit trade is getting the government genuinely interested in eradicating the poaching and smuggling of wildlife.
“No government past or present has taken a bona fide interest in curbing the illicit trade of wildlife in Sri Lanka,” charges former Director General, Sri Lanka Customs, Samantha Gunasekara. An environmentalist himself, Gunasekara says, the illicit trade of wildlife cannot be stopped if the government does not take positive and honest steps to combat it.
The illicit wildlife trade has become a major issue in Sri Lanka due to the country’s geographical location and rich biodiversity. This according to experts, has made it a key player in the local, regional and international illicit wildlife trade in recent times.
(Seahorses – Smuggled from India to Sri Lanka through sea for transit)
“The annual illicit trade is around US$ 150 – 268 Billion worldwide” Gunasekara claims. However, the real figures are much higher than that documented, he says.
Conservation International, an environmental activist group has identified Sri Lanka as one of the 25 leading and threatened biodiversity hotspots around the world. According to Gunasekara, Sri Lanka is among the top eight biodiversity hotspots due to the large number of endemic species found in the island.
Threatened
“While we have a large number of endemic species, many of them are threatened as most are concentrated in the southwestern part of the country where human population and activity are high” Gunasekara said.
With the country being rich in biodiversity, illegal traders may take the pick of the crop.
A species that had no demand 20 years ago, Sri Lanka today is number one exporter of Manta Rays. “There is a high demand for the item in the Far East, especially, in Hong Kong where it is considered a delicacy” says Gunasekara adding that there are no regulations in the country to protect the species. The Manta Ray is a protected species in international waters under the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals and Sri Lanka being a signatory to the Convention should be looking into the protection of the species.
According to Dinal Samarasinghe, Research and Project Officer of Environmental Foundation Limited, star tortoises and black tortoises too are popular commodities in the illicit trade.
“They are sold as pets,” he said, adding that Lizards and Butterflies endemic to Sri Lanka too can be easily found for purchase online, particularly in Europe.
A report compiled by Sandra Altherr in 2014 found that many rare species of Sri Lankan reptiles such as the Rhino horn lizard, Pygmy Lizard, Black Cheeked lizard and the hump snout lizard are being openly traded online in Europe causing grave concern among conservationists and environmentalists locally and internationally, as many of these species are vulnerable to extinction. The demand for edible birds’ nests, seashells, various types of fish and plants such as walla patta too remain high in the list.
Gunasekara claims, the country is now becoming a major transit point in the region for seahorses, sandalwood, red sanders, rosewood and ivory. “However, through detections and busts the trade has dwindled,” he said.
Nonetheless, syndicates that run international illicit wildlife trade rings continue to use Sri Lankan waters to smuggle their goods, while avoiding Sri Lankan ports due to heightened monitoring by the authorities, he said.
While internationally and regionally the mentioned species are in demand, the trade of elephants locally, has become one of the most serious, in recent times.
According to Gunasekara the value of an elephant calf soared with the rise of the local trade. “Just 10 years ago an elephant calf cost one million rupees, but by last year it increased to Rs.30 million due to the local trade,” he said.
Wildlife poaching and smuggling is carried out for bush meat, while killing animals to obtain parts based on mythical beliefs too is common in the country.
(Rose wood bust by customs while transiting from Sri Lanka)
Samarasinghe says, recently a leopard which was found killed in Yala Block 3 had no teeth as they had been collected by the poacher. “There is a belief that it gives power to those who possess them,” he said.
Wildlife is smuggled out through various methods. Surprisingly, the customs have in the past made detections of sandalwood leaving the island through diplomatic cargo, while some use devious methods such as false bottoms in luggage, mixing the rare specimens among common species or changing the appearance of the smuggled wildlife.
“Wallapatta for example is almost non-existent today due to unregulated collection and trade,” says Gunasekara adding that such actions could drive the whole species to a brink of extinction while also causing the loss of aesthetic beauty of the country and an ecological imbalance.
“We lose so much of foreign exchange and revenue through the illegal trade,” he pointed out saying that it has been found that revenue from trade can even be trailed to criminal and terror organizations. Sri Lanka has been combating wildlife trade through traditional methods of detection and raids but as pointed out by the Chairman of the Industrial Technology Institute Niroshan Perera advanced technology such as the SMART conservation software, real time virtual watch rooms to combat illegal fishing, Wildscan application for species identification, Wildleaks a whistleblower website are all being used to combat the trade the world over, though they are not used in Sri Lanka, at present.
(Rhino Horned Lizard – Endemic to Sri Lanka and popular in the illicit wildlife trade. Can be found for sale online in Europe)
We use the technology available with the help of ITI to identify wildlife being smuggled,” Gunasekara said. He thinks combating the illegal trade should happen at the grassroots level.
According to Gunasekara, “the main issue is the incorrect policies of the governments.” It is seen in the existing government mechanism, where,”the policy is made by one agency, while implementation remains with yet another agency” he says. “There is just no cohesiveness in the plan” Gunasekara claims.
Environmentalist Supun Lahiru Prakash of the Biodiversity Conservation and Research Circle (BCRC) agrees.
“Two months have elapsed since the committee report on the wrongdoings of the Wildlife Department officers and involvement in the illicit trade of elephants, which has been handed over to the Minister of Sustainable Development and Environment” he says, adding that the silence on the matter is questionable. According to Gunasekara poor public participation due to lack of awareness and education in protecting wildlife also contributes to poaching and smuggling taking place freely.
While the situation is one of concern, no official from the Department of Wildlife was available for comment. With the former Director General of the Department of Wildlife Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya tendering his resignation in June no new appointment has been made yet.
(Ivory nabbed during transit before destruction in Sri Lanka)
Recommendations
Gunasekara recommends that proper and realistic policies should be implemented while rulers should have a genuine political will to make a real and lasting change. “We must address the gaps in the national legislation now,” he says.
According to Gunasekara legal validation should also be given to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) which aims to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.
“We have been signatory to this convention for over three decades but we have not done anything yet to comply with it,” he laments.
While public education and awareness is needed, Gunasekara mentions that encouraging national pride and thinking is of utmost importance. “We must instil this in people and move them away from the currently existing indifference,” he notes.
“The thought that these depleting resources belong to all of us could make a world of difference in combating the illicit trade of Sri Lankan wildlife.”
(Source :Sunday Observer :http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2016/07/31/fea15.asp)
Injured giant
Sri Lanka as a nation has an enormous debt to pay to the wild elephants for safeguarding the areas of the present northern province, north central province, eastern province as well as Puttalam district for seven centuries. During this time, the island’s sovereigns completely abandoned Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura and the entire Rajarata and shifted the seats of administration and capitals to the western, northwestern and central provinces: Kurunegala, Dambadeniya, Gampola, Kotte and Kandy.
King Parakramabahu the Great ruled for 33 years from 1153 AC to 1186 AC. Unfortunately, he died without issue and 13 sovereigns of whom ten were kings, two were queens and one was a three-month old infant ruled from 1189 to 1214 AC. of them, the only noteworthy sovereign, who was able to maintain the massive network of irrigation works constructed by King Parakramabahu the Great and also uphold the Buddhist traditions which climaxed under the king, was King Nissankamalla. However he could rule only for nine years from 1187 AC, as he died in 1196 AC. Eleven sovereigns followed thereafter in quick succession till 1214 AC, when a foreign despot known as Kalinga Magha wrested authority at Polonnaruwa. He and his depraved troops plundered and destroyed the entire Rajarata. By the end of 21, years of Kalinga Magha’s barbaric rule, there was massive depopulation and the Rajarata plunged into the depths of penury and the jungle crept back to hide all the traces of the former grand civilisation.
It was only the widespread and eternal presence of elephants that prevented travellers, especially from the Arabian peninsula and the Indian subcontinent, who were frequent arrivals to Sri Lanka, from making inroads into the interior inland areas to establish settlements. The wild elephants also safeguarded the Buddhist shrines and various other historical monuments from treasure-hunters and vandals. When the Somawathy Chaitya, where a sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha is enshrined, was discovered in 1947, its vicinity was full of wild elephants and it has been observed by many that wild elephants visit the Chaitya around midnight to pay respects.
During the British Colonial period, a foreign vandal, who was taking aim to shoot at one of the Buddhist statues at the famous Gal Viharaya at Polonnaruwa, was killed, before he could release the trigger, by an elephant. It emerged suddenly from the forest behind him. These indicate that the wild elephants have been a source of extraordinary protection to the Buddhist places of worship whether they were in ruins or not, since the 13th century.
Army of wild elephants
The profusion of elephants that captain Robert Knox, a captive of the island’s king of Kandy, had encountered during the week of his escapade by fleeing through the jungle along the Malvatu Oya from Anuradhapura to the maritime boundry of the Dutch near Arippu in 1679 gives an indication of the density of the elephant population in the jungles of these areas at that time. The extreme mortal fear created by wild elephants in these jungles was as great as the oppressive fear the people had of the barbaric capital punishments of the ruling autocratic monarchs further down south of the island. It was this army of wild elephants which kept all the unauthorised activities of jungle clearing, settlements, treasure hunting and vandalism at bay.
Reverend Phillipus Baldaeus, a Dutch priest, who was in Ceylon for nine years, published a book titled ‘A true and exact description of the great island of Ceylon’. It was translated from Dutch to English by a Ceylonese, Pieter Brohier, and published in 1960. Out of the nine years, he spent one year at Matara and the rest in Manner and Jaffna districts, where he conducted missionary activities. He refers to elephants abounded in these districts and records a personal encounter with an elephant while travelling between Manner and Jaffna and even condoles the death of the chief of the elephant catchers in the Manner region by an elephant. In his description of the 11 churches built in Jaffna during his tenure, he mentions that the surroundings of the church at Pulopalai was subject to depredations of wild elephants. An illustration of this, depicting a herd of elephants and the wild palm trees felled by them, is also presented in the book.
Pulopalai is in Jaffna close to Elephant Pass. Further in his map of Vanni and Jaffna, the presence of elephants is indicated as extending right up to the boundary of Jaffna lagoon from Kilinochchi.
British colonial era
During the British colonial period, when the forests in wet zone were cleared for planting coffee, tea and rubber, the killing of elephants by shooting occurred in a massive scale. Shooting of elephants also occurred in the dry zone and intermediate zone by irate farmers for the protection of the settlements and cultivations with whatever type of guns they could lay their hands on, licensed or unlicensed, serviceable or unserviceable, imported or locally, turned out. When reading through the accounts of the exploits of shooting of elephants by hunters, who called themselves ‘ sportsman’ the descriptions of dead elephants invariably mention of innumerable gunshot injuries all over the body and these hunters have been the ones who fired the final fatal shots with their modern rifles to kill the elephants. The farmers have at most times shot elephants while perched atop their watch huts, built well above the range of the extended trunks of elephants, on strong trees.
The accounts of the pastimes of these ‘sportsman’ end with the grim tales of butchery for the removal of the forelegs, ears, tails and teeth of elephants for souvenirs as well as umbrella and walking stick stands for the porches of their bungalows. Actually from the commencement of the British colonial era up to now, the elephants have had no respite from being at the receiving end of bullets and suffering, for with the clearing of lands for the Galoya, Udawalawe and the Mahaweli projects, the last of which is still continuing, new colonists, settled in the former elephant habitats, continue to main and kill elephants using more and more sinister ways in addition to shooting.
Dr R L Spittel, the celebrated author, anthropologist and environmentalist of Sri Lanka, sounded these forebodings very succinctly in the editorial of the June 1951 issue of the ‘Loris’, the magazine of the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society of Sri Lanka, when large extents of hitherto elephant habitats were getting cleared for the projects at Galoya and Udawalawe.
The wild elephants are our biggest national asset and deserve a better treatment than being confined to the sixteen national parks and sanctuaries to eke out a living and get shot or electrocuted or die of bomb blasts in the mouth or get run over and killed by vans and trucks or railways or even get their calves stolen from them the moment they step out of the national parks or sanctuaries.
Currently 35 elephant calves, which were harboured in private premises, whose owners did not have valid legal documents to retain the calves, have been sent to the two state run elephant orphanages at Pinnawela and Udawalawe by the relevant authorities. The public are still not aware as to how these calves were procured from the wilds. Because elephants have become sources of easy income today from elephant rides and safaris for tourists as well as hiring out of elephants for religious processions, surreptitious capturing of elephant calves by contract catchers is a very serious threat to the survival of the wild elephants. Incidentally one cannot avoid wondering how elephant kidnappings have happened in such a massive scale in this country which only a few years earlier gained a notable victory over one of the most powerful terrorist organisations of the world.
Tragic consequences
Of the five continents in the world, elephants are found in only the two continents of Africa and Asia. The African elephant is Loxodonta africana and its two subspecies are the ‘Savannah elephant’ (Loxodonta africana africana) and the ‘Forest elephant’ (Loxodonta africana zyclotis).
The Asian elephant is Elephes maximus and there are three subspecies known as the ‘Ceylon elephant’ (Elephes maximus maximus) ‘Sumatran elephant’ (Elephes maximus sumatriana) and the ‘Indian elephant’ (Elephen maximus indice). The ‘Ceylon Elephant’ is found only in Sri Lanka and in the biggest of the Asian elephants.
The Solution to the ‘Elephant – Human-Conflict’ resulting in tragic consequences for both elephants and humans is long overdue. One is inclined to think that the elephants were forgotten entities in the land clearing equations at the planning stage of the mega projects of the Galoya, Udawalawe and the Mahaweli and the solution were from ideas which cropped up later as the ‘elephant problems’ were getting out of hand. Is it not better for us, even at this large stage, to have a sound, far sighted elephant conservation policy which can also be integrated into an economic development policy of the dry zone, which comprises 58 percent of the island’s land mass?
(Source : 18/07/2016 Daily News http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=2016/07/18/features/87795)