‘Gigantic buffet’ for hungry beasts
Sri Lankan elephants are in the news again just as the annual Kandy procession came to an end. The popular cultural event is also known for elephant abuse and cruelty according to animal lovers, despite the hallowed nature of the annual festival to honour Buddha’s tooth relic deposited in the temple.
Elephant is venerated in Buddhism as the beast is said to have protected Buddha during his time in the jungles spent on meditating. A pachyderm, named Parileyyea according to Buddhist texts, had rolled hot rocks into the chilly waters of the jungle pools for him to have a comfortable bath.
There is nothing holy about the way the Sri Lankans treat this beast which has been ousted from its natural habitats and food sources. Indiscriminate killing for its valuable tusks or as punishment for raiding cultivation go on regardless till the Wildlife Fund has declared Sri Lankan elephant an endangered species. If a favourable solution is not found to solve the elephant-man contest for survival, it is sure to face the same cruel fate as the northern white rhinos of Africa.
According to latest press reports, six elephants of a herd have died due to toxemia after eating from a landfill of rotten plastic and other waste near a residential area in Deegawapiya, close to a Buddhist sacred shrine and an archaeological site boasting of historical records dating back to the 3rd century BCE. The landfill obviously contains waste discarded by thousands of Buddhist devotees who make pilgrimages to venerate the place of worship and the residents living in the area. According to reports, the hungry elephants survive by rummaging through the landfill of rotten plastic and other waste.
A drone camera footage made by a team of foreign journalists has caught a herd of 15 elephants eating garbage in the landfill. Three young ones are also seen with the herd. A Sri Lankan reporter says that garbage is being dumped every night by dwellers from Akaraipattu, and the elephants come every morning from the nearby jungle searching for food.
The landfill looks like a ‘gigantic buffet’ according to a foreign reporter who accompanied the team shooting a video for SavingGanesh.org. He says indigestible plastic and polythene often lead to elephants’ early death.
Environmental scientist Philip Price who has directed the video says ulcerated intestines from chemicals in the plastics will eventually occur in 100 per cent of the elephants shortening their lives by 5 to 25 years. There are 30-40 garbage dumps on which about 400-500 elephants rely for their food. That’s roughly 10 per cent of elephant populations in Sri Lanka.
A female journalist, also accompanying the team, says one good solution to the problem is the construction of electric fences around these dump sites. Standing near the entrance of a protected site in Hambantota, she says the same problem of elephants raiding the garbage dump existed one year ago but after the fence was built the authorities have been able halt the situation. The installation of such fences are very expensive and it is doubtful whether the government or the local authorities are willing allocate such a lot of funds to protect wildlife.
At the beginning of this month wild life authorities had said that an elephant 35 years old and 9 feet tall, was killed in Horowpathana to steal its trunks. Last December police arrested five men charged with killing a wild elephant, with officers seizing ivory and tusk-cutting tools. The popular elephant known as Dala Pootuwa, ‘Cross Tusker’, due to the nature of the formation its tusks, had a bullet wound in the skull.
The Sri Lankan elephant (Elephas maximus maximus) is one of three recognized subspecies of the Asian elephant, and native to the island. The Sri Lankan subspecies is the largest and also the darkest of the Asian elephants. It is protected under the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance of Sri Lanka (FFPO), and killing it carries the death penalty.
The Department of Wildlife says that approximately 250 elephants die in Sri Lanka each year, adding that a majority of these deaths are due to gunshot injuries. The Department of wildlife estimates that there are currently 6,800 elephants in the country, adding that the jumbo population has also seen an increase. (Picture courtesy: SavingGanesh.org)
