Zoo Elephants’ entitlement comfort inn captivity

For most of us, the Dehiwala Zoo is a place of interest as there are so many animals to be viewed; but for some others, it is a place where large animals that cannot speak are forced to entertain and are confined to small areas and remain chained for most of their lives.

Elephants at the Dehiwala Zoo cannot remember a day when they were free of chains. The Dehiwala Zoo commenced operations in 1939 and is one of the oldest zoos in Asia; however, since its inception no director general saw it fit to rid these poor animals of their chains.

When Ceylon Today visited the Dehiwala Zoo, the most heartbreaking sight was that of a baby elephant lifting its front leg and trying to remove the chain with the trunk and another in another similar scene, another elephant calf was trying to remove its chain from the leg by its trunk. This is the stress and trauma these majestic animals are put through just so that visitors can come and stare at them. These elephants in captivity are highly stressed and this is visible by the way they sway backwards and forwards while confined to their small enclosures and kept for viewing.

The African elephant Jora was brought from Botswana together with a female Nandipa around 1995. Nandipa died at the zoo in 2005. Since then, the zoo officials have seen no need to get Jora a partner. Jora remains tied in a small area at the zoo.
According to zoo officials Jora is not allowed to interact with the other elephants because he is of a different species. According to former Deputy Director Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWLC) and elephant expert Dr. Nandana Atapattu elephants are social animals and require the company of other animals.

But despite the plight of these animals local and foreign visitors can be seen blatantly taking pictures and showing their children these animals in chains as if they were a painting to be admired.

The decision to construct an open elephant enclosure for the first time in the history at the zoo was taken by a former Director General of the zoo Brigadier H.A.N.T Perera way back in 2004. It was Brigadier Perera who understood the suffering of these large animals and decided it was about time they were freed of their chains. The extent of the elephant area at the time was six acres and the estimated cost was Rs 35 million. However, the land allocated for the open elephant enclosure was reduced to a little more than one acre; due to the lack of space, at the Dehiwala Zoo.

The open elephant arena was to be completed by the first quarter of 2005. But even today, zoo officials are still struggling to complete this elephant enclosure.

Acting Director General Dammika Malsinghe told Ceylon Today that work on the open elephant enclosure was stopped temporarily; due an internal problem with the Buildings Department. “I have spoken to the relevant officials and work on the elephant enclosure will commence soon. When the elephants are kept in a free roaming area, minus their chains, the mahouts lose control over the animals. Plans are underway to complete the elephant enclosure by the end 2016,” Malsinghe said.
But the zoo authorities are yet to come up with a plan to release Jora the African elephant from his chains. “When the elephant enclosure is complete all the elephants except the African elephant will be put in the new enclosure. We have to decide if we are to keep Jora at Dehiwala or send him to the Hambantota Safari Park,” Malsinghe said.

The delay in the construction of the open elephant enclosure through the years was due to the change in directors, before the work was completed. With the change in government Brig. Perera was removed from his post as Director General and his plans for the open elephant arena was delayed.

The previous, Director General, Bashwara Gunaratne, who took office in 2010, told Ceylon Today at the time, that the open elephant enclosure would be completed by December 2011. However, Gunaratne’s tenure as Director General was over in mid 2012 and the open elephant enclosure was not completed when he left.

In late June 2012, the then Director General Anura de Silva, told Ceylon Today, that they hope to complete the open elephant enclosure by December 2012. “Due to a lapse on the part of the State Engineering Corporation work on the elephant arena was further delayed and not completed in December 2012. I have told the State Engineering Corporation, that work on this area has to be completed by the end of August 2013. We are not in a position to cancel the agreement we have signed with the State Engineering Corporation as they were chosen after having called for tenders.” De Silva said at the time.

“When some of the elephants tested positive for Tuberculosis they were kept in the area where the open elephant enclosure was to be built and work was delayed further.”

“If an elephant is tame there is no need to use the bullhook and chains to control the animal. If there are professional and experienced mahouts they should know how to command and control the animals. Elephants are intelligent animals and understand better than humans. In foreign zoos Asian and African elephants are kept without chains. If an elephant can’t be taken without chains then don’t take that animal anywhere. Elephants walk for 20 kilo metres a day in the jungle. Some animals may walk in one place and go round and round but that amount of distance is covered by the animal. This exercise helps to keep the animal’s body healthy. If, however, the animal exceeds 20 kilo metres he will stop and rest for a while. At least five acres of land is needed for five adult elephants to roam in an open enclosure. If the Dehiwala Zoo doesn’t have enough space to keep these elephants they should be taken to a place where there is sufficient space for the elephants to roam,” Dr.Atapattu explained.

The zoo is also criticized for forcing elephants to perform at the elephant show every day at 4.30 p.m.
“I hate to see elephants standing on their heads, sitting on small stools and standing on two legs to perform. The elephant doesn’t play the mouth organ even though children are made to believe that they do. 20 per cent of the breathing is done by the elephant’s mouth and 80 by the trunk. When the mouth organ is kept close to the elephant’s mouth every time, the elephant breathes, the mouth organ makes a sound. I detest elephants being forced to perform these gimmicks due to fear of the ankus and the kris knife. Fruits are given to elephants when they perform a trick, just like giving a baby a chocolate. Elephant shows have been a zoo feature since the inception of the zoo and it is high time this was stopped,” Dr. Atapattu explained.

Zoologist Dilan Peiris says not many people know the meaning of a zoo. “The purpose of a zoo is to conserve and protect its animals for future generations. All zoos should work towards the welfare of the animals. But the Dehiwala Zoo is not moving forward but backwards when it comes to animal welfare. The elephant performance at the Dehiwala Zoo shows that there is no animal welfare when it comes to these animals. The elephant shows should be stopped immediately. Why should animals be forced to perform to entertain visitors? Forcing these animals to perform is not good for their health. Educational programmes should be introduced for children at the Dehiwala Zoo. The zoo should not be closed down but should be improved where animal welfare is concerned,” Peiris explained.

Zoo officials, however, have no plans of stopping the elephant performance. “The elephant show is continuing at the zoo. But some items such as the elephants standing on stools and in an up-right position were stopped recently. The item where the elephants stand on their heads was stopped some time ago. Educational items such as how an elephant carries a log have been introduced to the show instead,” Malsinghe said.

The first elephant show was in 1947. However Jora the African elephant and Bandula are not taken for the elephant shows. Bandula is used to carry the elephants meals that consist of leaves and branches to the elephant shed. While transporting the food Bandula is untied for a short period of time. Bandula the oldest male elephant was brought to the zoo in 1949.

Source : 20/09/2016  Ceylon Today, http://www.ceylontoday.lk/print20160701CT20161030.php?id=5785

Protecting Sri Lanka’s elephant population

Mitigating the Human-Elephant Conflict and reducing the alarming rate at which elephants are currently being killed (about four per week) requires addressing various aspects of the problem simultaneously without resorting to stop gap, piece-meal solutions, asserts Srilal Miththapala.

In an interview with Daily FT, the passionate wildlife enthusiast, untiring advocate of conservation of wild elephants and experienced tourism professional points out that such a major multi-faceted campaign to address the HEC will need State patronage and leadership, together with a strong private sector partnership.

“Until there is a will from the Government to handle the HEC as a top priority in a holistic manner, I am afraid nothing much will happen, and we are doomed to see our wild elephant population eventually dying off,” he warns.

Following are excerpts:
Q: Elephants gather in Minneriya during the dry season due to the relative availability of water in the area. Are there signs that this pattern is being (or will be) disrupted due to climate change and more intense bouts of drought? If so what effect will this have on the park and on the elephants?

A: So far there has been no appreciable change to be noticed, even though there have been some changes in the weather patterns. The most critical element in this annual phenomena is the natural ebb and flow of the reservoir annually. Just as much as the reservoir getting filled during the rainy season is important, the gradually drying up of the reservoir during the draught is also important.

When the water recedes it leaves behind fertile, moist soil where lush grass quickly sprouts, which is good nutritious food for the wild elephants. So apart from changing weather patterns and other natural causes, if the reservoir is in any way artificially filled by channelling water from other sources for additional storage for irrigation purposes, it will affect this natural annual ‘ebb and flow’, resulting in disastrous consequences for ‘The Gathering’.

Q: You’ve written about the revenue making potential of ‘The Gathering’ but can Minneriya National Park handle an influx of tourists without deteriorating conditions for wildlife?

A: Yes I did estimate that ‘The Gathering’ is now worth about more than Rs. 1 billion annually. But I never did imply that it can go on increasing forever. There is a limit to the growth, and visitor influx has to be curtailed once there are signs of over-visitation and disruptions to the elephants’ feeding behaviour. I am told that this year the situation has reached unprecedented levels and that something needs to be done very urgently to curb over-visitation.

Q: Some environmentalists would argue that commercialisation of wildlife is categorically wrong and leads to abuse, as seen in Dehiwala Zoo or Yala. In your opinion, are profit and conservation compatible? What steps can we take to maintain a balance?

A: I think conservation and commercialisation can be compatible, but only if managed and balanced extremely carefully and ethically. The problem arises in maintaining this delicate balance. There must be no exploitation, no unethical use of captive animals, and above all they have to be well cared for and used for educational, and conservational purposes only.

Q: The Government has recently approved keeping a pool of around 35 elephants for peraheras – a solution that you have vocally supported in the past. Do you see this as a permanent solution or one step in phasing out elephants in religious and cultural activities?

A: Yes, I have supported this, and it has turned into a controversial issue now! So let me explain. Peraheras and elephants are a rich cultural and religious tradition in Sri Lanka, coming down from historical times. Having said that, traditions also need to change gradually overtime, as perceptions and the social environment changes… but not overnight. So I believe over a period of time, the custom of using tame elephants in pageants will, and should stop. Until then we need an interim solution.

We have a captive herd of some 80 odd elephants at the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage or PEO as it is known, most of whom have lived all their life in captivity. There is no way these animals could be rehabilitated and released into the wild, because they will just not know how to fend for themselves. So what some of us have suggested is to handpick a group of suitable elephants, from this source (PEO), with the correct temperament, and physique, to be trained and used in pageants as an interim measure. The orphanage could earn valuable income which can in turn be used for upkeep and improvement of its facilities.

As time goes by, if the human elephant conflict is managed and mitigated well, there will be fewer orphaned elephant calves from the wild, and ‘input’ to the PEO will reduce, and gradually such elephants available for ‘pageant duty’ will also reduce. Hopefully by that time people would have realised that having hundreds of elephants in pageants is not viable option, and we may see peraheras with just a few customary elephants in the procession, together with one with special characteristics to carry the relics.

Q: On what basis do you think these elephants should be selected and how should their numbers be replenished over the years? Furthermore, how do we ensure the physical and mental wellbeing of elephants who will be driven around the country and exposed to loud festivals on a regular basis?

A:As indicated earlier, they should be handpicked to ensure that only good, healthy individuals with the correct docile temperament are chosen. They should each have a dedicated fulltime mahout, who will ensure that the animal is properly transported, looked after and managed during such pageants. Proper transport facilities should be provided as a part of the hiring package offered by the PEO, and at all times the PEO should be able to monitor the elephants. There could be roster in place to ensure that some animals are not overused. Of course all this requires very strict guidelines and monitoring, which in itself is another challenge.

Q: Recently the issue of starving elephants has come up. What are some of the driving factors for this and what can be done in the short and medium term to address this problem?

A:I think you are referring to the issue brought up recently at a talk about elephants in wildlife parks being malnourished. This problem actually stems from the mismanagement of National Parks and alienation of elephants from other forest areas. Contrary to what many people believe, elephants are not particularly fond of heavily forested areas. They prefer scrub grass lands and other secondary vegetation. When they are confined to National Parks, and when translocated elephants from other areas are also introduced or herds driven into the parks, without any consideration of carrying capacity, these food sources dwindle and the elephants slowly start getting malnourished.

Large-scale proper management of the flora of the park has to be carried out in a symmetric manner to help re-generate these food sources that the elephants need. A prime example of this is the Uda Walawe National Park (UWNP), which had one of the best thriving and healthy populations of wild elephants in Sri Lanka. Overcapacity has gradually eroded the environment and food sources in the park, and with no interventions to stimulate re-growth of the eroded grassland, it is now beginning to show, with several emaciated looking individuals being sighted now.

Over 65% of the wild elephant population of the island live outside protected areas, which often have much richer and nutritious food sources. The easiest ‘solution’ to the HEC in the name of conservation is to drive these elephants into the parks, further aggravating the problems within the parks… when actually the need is to manage these animals outside the protected areas itself.

This is a good example to show that the HEC cannot be solved by a few quick-fix solutions. There has to be a management plan for these peripheral areas, many of which do not come under the purview of the Department of Wildlife Conservation, but under the Forest Department, which then opens out complex issues of jurisdiction and responsibility.

Q: Finally, do you feel the tide is turning when it comes to elephant conservation efforts? Is Sri Lanka progressing in terms of preserving if not growing its elephant population? What are some of the policies and factors responsible for this?

A: Unfortunately I do not think the tide is turning at all. There is still no cohesive and holistic approach to tackle the Human Elephant Conflict (HEC), with only typical ‘kneejerk’ responses to problems. Take for example the recent incident where four elephants were knocked down by a train and killed. The immediate solution is fitting infra-red cameras on trains. This problem has been discussed so many times before, analysed and solutions suggested.

There are a whole range of issues which have to be addressed here. The attitude of the engine drivers, the speeds of the trains and stopping distances, visibility around bends and line of sight, etc. I know that Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya travelled on a train several years ago to see for himself the issues and understand the complexities. What a few us concluded was that no ONE solution would work, and that there needed to be a multi-pronged, cohesive solution, addressing both the hard and soft issues.

Similarly mitigating the HEC, and reducing the alarming rate at which elephants are currently being killed (about four per week) requires addressing various aspects of the problem simultaneously, in a cohesive, focused, organised sustained manner, without resorting to stop gap, piece-meal solutions.  Such a major multi-faceted campaign to address the HEC will need State patronage and leadership, together with a strong private sector partnership.

So until there is a will from the Government to handle the HEC as a top priority in a holistic manner, I am afraid nothing much will happen, and we are doomed to see our wild elephant population eventually dying off. –

Source : 29/08/2016 Dailly FT http://www.ft.lk/article/564056/Protecting-Sri-Lanka-s-elephant-population#sthash.oNgiT8C3.dpuf

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)