From Pinnawala’s freedom to shackles in somebody’s backyard

Within the span of 40 years of the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage, the baby born on the eve of 2nd July 2015 was the 70th. He was born to parents Shanthi and Wasabha under the observation of veterinarians as a very healthy young one. As this was the first birth recorded after 2010 it was an immensely joyous occasion to the whole of the staff. On the auspicious day of 06.08.2015 the baby was named “Anuradha” and was released to the herd of elephants. The greeting he and the mother received was a heartfelt sight bringing tears to the eyes of tourists and workers alike. As Anuradha and Shanthi neared the herd Anuradha’s aunt Meena came forward to escort them towards the middle. There the matriarch greeted them and welcomed to the herd with customary trumpeting. Then the whole herd huddled to a single pile touching and cuddling their newest precious member with promises of taking care of him well.” – As announced in the Department of National Zoological Gardens website.

Now we hear of a Cabinet decision to give elephants from the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage (PEO) to individuals and institutions– a move that will cruelly separate elephants from their close knit herds. That the PEO is overcrowded is the reason for this decision. Individuals will have to pay a Rs. 10 million bond, but the bond will not apply to religious institutions.

Conceptualised by then Tourism Minister P.B.G. Kalugalle, the PEO established in 1975, stands on 25 acres of land, on the banks of Ma Oya, amidst the scenic beauty of luxuriant verdancy. Originally under the Wildlife Conservation Department, it is now under the National Zoological Gardens Department (NZG). Today, home to 88 elephants, it opened with five orphaned elephants.The first calf born there, in 1984, was Sukumali. A prime tourist attraction, the PEO is one of the State’s main revenue earners.

For animal rights activists and conservationists, the Cabinet decision is distressing. It is heartless and ill-conceived – exposing these magnificent animals to cruelty, abuse and exploitation and affecting their breeding.

Elephants are herd animals. They live in matriarchal family groups, led by the oldest female in each herd. Elephant behaviourists say elephants display complex social and emotional behaviour, valuing their families more than most animals and form lifelong friendships among them, even mourning the deaths of loved ones, with mothers grieving over stillborn calves and some lingering where friends and family members had died. The calves sometimes hold on to their mother’s tails with their trunks to keep up, while other female elephants protect them from danger. Being extremely intelligent animals, with long memory spans, said to serve matriarchs well when during dry seasons they guide the herd to watering holes, over long distances they recall from the past. In private custody, deprived of their natural habitat, where they roamed free with their herd, browsing, foraging and socializing, these majestic animals undergo tremendous physical and mental suffering.

Instances of elephants given to private individuals and temples, suffering or dying due to cruelty, negligence, lack of care or callousness are galore. There are photographic evidence and eye witness accounts – all four feet shackled for hours with short iron chains cutting into the skin causing deep wounds, and fatal foot ailments due to lack of exercise. Assaults by intoxicated mahouts, exposure to lightning and floods causing death, torturous training, using heated iron rods for taming, parading on burning concrete roads, malnutrition, lack of veterinary care, starvation during pageants, overriding, overdriving and pulling by the ears to hasten speed at elephant races popular at Sinhala New Year festivals are only a few examples of this wanton cruelty.

Sannasas or agreements giving elephants to private custody require the animals to be used only for religious or cultural activities, but they are often hired for commercial gain by the recipients to hotels for rides or to nature parks. As Wildlife Minister Gamini Jayawickreme Perera has said, “When we announced that we are going to take back elephants if we find them used for elephant rides almost 80 % of the temples had taken back their elephants, admitting that the temples were engaging in tourism activities.”

There are no laws to assure captive elephant welfare. Consequent to a court case filed by the Animal Welfare Trust, Welfare Regulations were formulated, but a delay in their gazetting to give them the force of law has led to concerns that persons with vested interests are stalling them. The Wildlife Minister however, has given clear directions to his officials to take immediate action to gazette them.

Captive breeding statistics are dismal, with only three births recorded.Pinnawela,by 2015 had 70. Former NZG Director General Brigadier H.A.N.T. Perera says, private owners are disinterested in breeding, as pregnant elephants, during their 22 month long gestation period,cannot be used to earn money.

Challenging the statement that there is overcrowding, some speculate that the Cabinet decision is a stratagem to give elephants to those demanding them complaining that they have no elephants for peraheras, but mostly requiring them 24×7 to exploit for commercial purposes. The creation of a ‘pool’ of trained elephants in Pinnawela to ‘hire’ for peraheras and return, a move unreservedly endorsed by activists, has been considered previously, but without success. Such endorsement exposes the humbug of those accusing activists of conspiring to destroy religion and culture by opposing private ownership. According to Brigadier Perera,then Environment Ministers Rukman Senanayake and A.H.M. Fowzie had between 2001 and 2004 sought Cabinet approval to train and hire out 50 elephants from the PEO, but with the Cabinet suggesting changes, which were not pursued, it had died a natural death. Last year, incumbent Minister Perera too made a similar recommendation.

As Brigadier Perera says even now the Pinnawela Zoo can be used not only to expand the PEO, but also to establish a Training Centre, a Veterinary Hospital and other facilities making it a Regional Centre of Excellence for Asian Elephant Conservation. Another option is to acquire adjoining land. Cannot land expansion be pursued to resolve Pinnawela’s purported overcrowding instead of separating elephants from their families?

President Maithripala Sirisena pledged a compassionate government in his Manifesto, referring also to the need to prevent violence to animals. A compassionate government cannot have heartless decision makers,who for political gain, succumb to the demands of those who will abuse animals for monetary gain. This compassion should apply not only to people, but also to elephants and all other animals.

Source – 04/06/2017, The Sunday Times, See more at – http://www.sundaytimes.lk/170604/plus/from-pinnawalas-freedom-to-shackles-in-somebodys-backyard-243034.html

Environmentalists and academics bitter-sweet on sugar cane cultivation in Bibile

By Chrishanthi Christopher

The Government plan to launch a sugar company in Bibile has drawn protests from environmentalists who say that, the cultivation of sugarcane will use up the ground water, depriving people of their source of legitimate drinking water. A Cabinet paper has reportedly been passed for the project due to commence in early December. Under the project, plans are under way to distribute 62,500 acres of land to 10,000 farmers in the Uva-Wellassa region, to cultivate sugarcane in the area.

Under the scheme, each farmer will get 2.5 hectares of land to cultivate sugarcane. It is claimed the project will eliminate poverty among farmers in the area. The Centre for Environment and Nature Studies claimed the Govt has given a human face to the project, following massive protests encountered in the past. Convener Raveendra Kariyawasam said an earlier attempt in 2006, by the then Govt to hand over the sugarcane project to Britain’s Booker Tate, was foiled by protesting people.

The farmers are expected to cultivate the land and sell the produce to the company. The land will be leased to the farmers, while farmers opting to withdraw from the project will have to return the land to the Govt. The company will be given only 149 acres of land on which to operate. Environmentalists fear that the cultivation of sugarcane will use up the ground water used by the area residents for drinking, as they claim that, sugarcane cultivation needs plenty of water hence, depleting the Uva-Wellessa water table.

Professor B. Marambe of the Peradeniya University’s, Agriculture Dept, said the crop does not use up ground water for growth. “Sugarcane belongs to the grass family, just like rice, maize and sorghum and, unlike rice, grows well in the highlands. Rice, on the other hand, is extensively cultivated in the lowlands and uses up plenty of water, while sugarcane, comparatively, uses less water,” he said. The Professor, who has done extensive research on sugarcane said the crop takes 9 to 12 months to yield, and needs continuous and adequate water right through the year and, because of its longer duration to yield, may use up more water. But, as the root system is fibrous, it cannot reach down to the ground water.

Further he discounted the argument that many sugar producing companies in the world are moving away from sugarcane cultivation because of the drain on ground water tables in those areas.
“They are moving out because of the agricultural chemicals used to kill the weeds in sugarcane cultivation,” he said. He maintains that, if a bi-annual crop is cultivated on the same land, the water usage will be very much higher. “It is only speculation that the water table will be exhausted. Sugarcane belongs to the C4 category of plants and uses up less water than the C3 category- maize and paddy plants.”
“In Moneragala, the ground water table is deep and the volume of water underground fluctuates according to the rainfall received in those areas,” he said.

Meanwhile, Director-CEO of the Sugar Research Institute, Dr A.P. Keerthipala also dismissed the argument that ground water will be depleted. “There is no scientific evidence to prove this,” he said.
“There is always opposition when a new project comes up. This project is designed to uplift the economic levels of the poor farmers who can earn up to Rs 250,000 a year. In addition, there will be several infrastructure developments which the residents of the area can enjoy,” he said. “Also, there are several other upcoming projects in Batticaloa, Maduru Oya and in the North,” he said.

Source – 04/06/2017,The Sunday Times, See more at – http://www.sundaytimes.lk/170604/news/environmentalists-and-academics-bitter-sweet-on-sugar-cane-cultivation-in-bibile-243445.html

Sampur pilot whales stranding will remain a mystery View(s): 132

A pod of about 20 pilot whales stranded on Sampur beach in Trincomalee were pushed back to sea last Wednesday by some navymen and locals.
Marine mammal expert Ranil Nanayakkara, identified them as short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus).
While this is rare in Sri Lanka, there have been occasions elsewhere when pilot whales have run aground.
Mr Nanayakkara points out that in February more than 400 pilot whales washed up on a New Zealand beach.

Beached whales die due to dehydration, or drowning when high tide covers the blowhole. In some cases, they die by collapsing under their own weight.
Available literature indicates that about 10 species of whales – mostly toothed whales are more prone to being stranded than others.
Why whales get beached in an apparent suicide mission remains a mystery. Many whales use echolocation to navigate, so one theory is that man-made sonar in ships etc. may be interfering with whales and/or natural brain wave activity causing them to become disoriented. Seismic activities on the ocean floor too could be contributory factor.

Most of the whales have close-knit family units, so another hypothesis is that a pod of whales can accidentally become stranded when attempting to come to the aid of a beached whale that is sending out distress calls.
A pilot whale pod can be made up of 20 to 50 individuals, but large super pods with hundreds of individuals too are frequent. They are primarily matrilineal or a female-based society with strong family bonds, so if one swims on to the beach, the others could follow. They have an acute sense of hearing according to marine researchers, making them more prone to stranding. In 1918, over 1,000 pilot whales got beached in New Zealand.

Although the pilot whale’s behaviour resembles that of larger whale species, it belongs to the oceanic dolphin family. Pilot whales are large, robust animals with a bulbous head and no discernible beak. They are black in colour. A male pilot whale can grow up to 5.5 metres (18 ft) in length, whereas adult females are about 3.7 metres (12 ft) in length.

The short-finned pilot whale primarily feeds on squid while certain species of fish and octopus too are included in their diet. They dive deep 300 metres (1000 ft) deep or more in search of prey and spend great lengths of time at depth. Pilot whales are also known as the ‘cheetas of the deep’ for their ability of high speed pursuit of prey deep in the ocean.

Source – 04 /06/2017, The Sunday Times, See more at – http://www.sundaytimes.lk/170604/news/sampur-pilot-whales-stranding-will-remain-a-mystery-243484.html

Muthurajawela becoming environmental wasteland

Dead Fish

Thousands of fish farmed for consumption have been found dead at Bopitiya, Muthurajawela after heavy rains and the flooding contaminated the farms with waste from large scale piggeries, factories, and the recently dumped garbage.  The people who ran the fish farms say the fish were dead within days when dark oily water contaminated their tanks.
The Sunday Times journalists witnessed the dead and blackened fish that floated on the surface of the water.

One fish farmer, Sarath Saparamadu, estimated his losses at Rs 150,000. He is also the treasurer of the Pamunugama Jala Jeewi Wagakaruwange Sangamaya.
He explained that the fish farmers specialised in thilapia, which they sell to hotels. “I was hoping to collect the catch within two months, but lost everything. Usually I collect over 20 metric tonnes,’’ he said.
The villagers in the area said that Muthurajawela can no longer be called a marsh because of the farms, steel factories, and garbage dump sites.
Mr Saparamadu said that the public health inspector and Grama Sevaka had only visited his residence at Madawatta, Muthurajawela once. The official did not even collect water samples.
Fish farmer, Rukman Chandrasena, said he had once witnessed the deaths of fish earlier, when waste from a large scale pig farm contaminated the water. He had complained to the PHI, the Grama Sevaka, and the Pamunugama Police at the time, but it was futile.

Once again, he complained of the damage, a week ago, he said. But no one is taking responsibility and there is no compensation.
He said that most fish farmers use water from the Hamilton Canal and other small waterways which are connected to the Muthurajawela lagoon. He said the fish in the canal have disappeared.
“Our tanks fill up with contaminated water during high tide and flush out. In my seven tanks, 15,000 fish are under threat. Already three tanks have been affected,’’ he said.
After many complaints, the PHI and the Grama Sevaka visited the area but nothing was done.

Meanwhile, the president of the Pamunugama Jala Jeewi Wagakaruwange Sangamaya, N.T.A Perera, said that he lost between 12,000 and 20,000 fish.
He said the fingerlings died quickly. Only one tank out of four holding fingerlings remained unaffected.
Three fish farmers in Bopitiya, including himself, were affected, while 22 members of the group, operating in other areas, escaped the damage.
“Owners of the pig farm release waste into the water during the rainy season while factories also pump toxic waste into the water,” he said.
Anil Lankapura Jayamaha, the president of the Organisation for Protecting Muthurajawela Sanctuary, said he had predicted such incidents following garbage dumping in Muthurajawela.
The Bopitiya Police, Govijana Seva Centre, and the Wild Life Department are ignoring the environmental degradation, he said.

Mr Jayamaha said that the people also filed a fundamental rights case against the destruction of the environment.
He charged that supporters of the previous lands minister and other powerful people are filling up sites illegally.
A senior official of the Wattala Divisional Secretariat, said that the government is causing massive damage to Muthurajawela by dumping garbage there.
The PHI of Bopitiya S R K Indunil Samaratunga declined to comment when contacted.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times has learned that trucks are dumping unsegregated garbage on the Bopitiya gas plant site.
The Colombo Municipal Commissioner V K Anura claimed that only segregated garbage is dumped at Bopitiya. Meat or fish waste are not taken to the site, he said.
He said local government bodiesfrom other areas dump unsegregated garbage on the site. “Our garbage dumping is done smoothly. There are no issues regarding [our] garbage,’’ he claimed.
But Colombo Municipal Council garbage truck drivers said the garbage is not sorted.

Sometimes they are not allowed to dump garbage at Bopitiya because it had not been separated, or because it exceeded the daily limits, they said.
“Our overtime allowance is cut if we dump unsegregated garbage,” they said.

They said senior officials keep changing their plans about garbage collection.
“We used to only collect separated garbage on some days and unsegregated garbage on other days. Now people give us all the garbage, unseparated. So we are compelled to dump it (in Bopitiya),” the truck drivers said.

Trucks returning to Colombo after dumping unsegregated garbage at the site of the Bopitiya gas plant

Sarath Saparamadu: Estimates his losses at Rs 150,000. Pix by Amila Gamage

Source – 04/06/2017, The Sunday Times, See more at – http://www.sundaytimes.lk/170604/news/muthurajawela-becoming-environmental-wasteland-243476.html

Yala National Park a mess due to political meddling

Give DWC independence to do its job, urges former DG
Tourism officials conspicuous absentees at biodiversity event

By Kumudini Hettiarachchi

Everyone else was there, except the tourism officials. Even though numerous invites had gone out to a wide-range of tourism officials, no one deemed it important to grace the discussions on ‘Biodiversity & Sustainable Tourism’ vital for people’s existence, held on May 22. This was what the participants at the event organised by Biodiversity Sri Lanka (BSL) on International Day for Biological Diversity held at the HNB auditorium in Colombo heard after queries were raised whether any tourism officials were present.

Four panellists dealt with the crucial topics of ‘Challenges in the Yala National Park (NP)’; ‘Vistas of Sinharaja’; ‘Dollars for deeds’; and ‘Significance of the coasts around us’, after which there was a robust discussion moderated by BSL Advisor Shiranee Yasaratne.

Tackling over-visitation and its consequences on the biodiversity of the Yala NP, former Director-General (DG) of the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC), Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya, questioned whether a natural ecosystem can sustain “abuse” in the light of tourist numbers skyrocketing more than 1,000% from 2008 to 2015 – from 48,368 to 545,007 visitors at Yala.

Explaining that no formal studies have been done whether over-visitation has adverse impacts on biodiversity, he pointed out that road-kills have increased within the Yala NP, there is harassment of wildlife at sightings, visitors are feeding wild animals and causing behavioural changes in them and there is anecdotal evidence of a decline in the animal population within Yala.

He was very critical of the government’s “over-emphasis” on tourism revenue, while neglecting protection and management of Protected Areas. Dr. Pilapitiya not only zeroed-in on the problems but also provided answers on how to overcome them. According to him the approach should be the identification of the issues that need to be addressed and the constraints in dealing with them; and studying the profile of tourists using Block 1 of the Yala NP where there are huge issues, while introducing a strategy to improve overall visitor experience there.

“The nature-interpretation services offered by the DWC are poor,” he said, adding that the DWC also faces a dearth of staff and facilities such as patrol vehicles to regulate tourism within the NP. The DWC is challenged by inadequate guide numbers, inability to get government approval for more recruitment, weak enforcement of NP rules and lack of independence to penalize violators.

While there are nearly 700 registered commercial safari vehicles, the issues to be addressed include the indiscipline of safari jeep drivers and passengers whenever there are animal sightings, high speed and reckless driving when attempting to reach such sightings and massive vehicle jams and disturbance of wildlife during sightings.

The former DWC Director-General who resigned due to political interference preventing him from performing his duties, pointed without ambiguity, at “continued political interference” in the wake of which follows lack of independence for the DWC to regulate tourism within Yala. “There is uneven imposition of rules due to political patronage and interference.”

He also added that while Yala’s Block 1 faced much over-visitation, the wildlife in Blocks 3, 4 and 5 were not habituated to visitor-vehicles. Profiling the current ‘visitors’ to Yala, he said they are focusing on “sightings” and not “observations”, with the NP at present being marketed as a “leopard-sighting location”. Therefore, the short-term strategy for the conversion of Yala into a “wildlife observation site” is impractical.

Dr. Pilapitiya turns the spotlight on an implementable ‘Action Plan’ proposed, which includes:

• 31 short-term actions to be implemented by January 1, 2018 — Regular patrolling, strict enforcement of rules, progressively increasing penalties, speed-bumps, uni-flow system where possible, training of both safari jeep drivers and DWC guides and using Blocks 2, 3, 4 and 5 for ‘wilderness’ tourism.
• 9 medium-term actions to be implemented by January 1, 2019 – Zoning the park, opening the west-side of the Sithulpauwwa Road, a carrying-capacity assessment and halting the over-promotion of Yala by the tourism industry.
• 2 long-term actions by 2023 – With increased sightings in Blocks 3, 4 and 5, imposition of vehicle limits in all blocks through gradual reductions and empowerment of DWC officials.

Dr. Pilapitiya is adamant that DWC officials “must” be empowered to enforce regulations without being fearful of a political backlash. “For this, the responsibility clearly lies with the highest-level political authorities and the Wildlife Minister.”

Referring to the coast around us, it is Maeve Nightingale of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) who details marine and coastal tourism that Sri Lanka can engage in, however, stressing that there is a fine balance between conceptual issues and constraints to sustainable tourism, when taking into account the environment (natural habitats and local livelihoods) on one hand and financial criteria (infrastructural development, tourist arrivals and tourism products and services) on the other.

She pointed out that tourism as a whole is the most international “trade” item with reef tourism becoming an increasingly large component. However, the adverse impacts of reef-based tourism could be immense.
Citing the example of the small island of Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand, Ms. Nightingale said that it has one of the largest dive industries in the world with over 65 dive schools and operators. It is also accountable for one-third of the annual registrations of the Professional Associations of Dive Instructors (PADI) internationally.

According to her, Koh Tao’s management issues are wide-ranging – shortage of freshwater and groundwater; inadequate solid waste collection and disposal; untreated wastewater disposal from communities and tourist facilities; rapid unplanned development; construction and encroachment on beach and terrestrial forest; although building legislation and the requirement of environmental impact assessments (EIAs) are in place there is no consistent enforcement; tourist numbers exceeding the island’s carrying capacity; the uneven distribution of benefits from tourism; and the high cost of living for the local people.
The list goes on: High energy demands and dependency on diesel-fuelled generators; localized oil-spills from fishing and tourism boats; coral-reef degradation; decline in fisheries resources; and a development plan launched in 1995 but not well-adopted.

There are key factors to sustainably managing coastal tourism, says Ms. Nightingale. They are:

• Capacity development
• Consideration of a complex range of sub-national, national and transnational relationships
• Regulatory frameworks
• Community involvement, trust, acceptance and support
• Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) – compensating for loss of earnings, protecting and restoring habitats and conserving endangered species
• Sustainable financing – entrance fees, fund-raising and private sector partnerships
• Coordination among multi-sectoral and multi-faceted agencies
• Collaboration of all stakeholders

Urging Sri Lanka not to go the way Koh Tao has gone, Ms. Nightingale added that many lessons can be learnt from this example.
BSL which organized the event is a private-sector owned and driven platform, with a membership of 63. It has been established to promote the strong engagement of the corporate sector in biodiversity and environmental conservation issues.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Sri Lanka and BSL entered into a collaborative partnership, with UNDP as its first Associate Member recently.
Both organizations have identified potential areas of engagement and a set of joint activities, on areas such as policy innovation, social innovation initiatives and engagement of small and medium-sized enterprises

(SMEs). Areas such as environment sustainability and disaster resilience, tourism and biodiversity have been determined where room and potential for collaboration exists, a media release said.  (Next: Focus on Sinharaja and how a hotel has turned dollars into deeds)

Source – 4/06/2017, Ther Sunday Times, See more at – http://www.sundaytimes.lk/170604/news/yala-national-park-a-mess-due-to-political-meddling-243493.html