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| Sunday, 13 October 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Memoirs of a game ranger... Man's inhumanity to man by E. Desmond White, Former Park Warden, Yala
This bungalow had to be abandoned as the foundation gave way due to erosion caused by a bend in the Menik Ganga at this spot and this narration refers to this building. Before the new Yala bunglaow was built a temporary aluminium structure served as the circuit bungalow and due to lack of space the kitchen of the abandoned bungalow was used to store provisions. I was at the Yala Qrs. with Game Guards David and Saipadeen, to spend the night there. Early the next morning we were surprised when bunglaow keeper Sirisena came running and informed us that there was a leopard in the kitchen of the abandoned bungalow. He had noticed this when he had gone to fetch onions and chillies for the morning 'sambol'. Although this seemed incredible we went there and found it to be true. We warned all visitors to the park, the staff and bungalow occupants of this danger and were perplexed regarding the unusual behaviour of this leopard. My staff and I got onto the roof of the unused bungalow and at first drenched the leopard with water, and thereafter with kerosene oil and rags set fire to the kitchen to drive away the animal but to no avail. I got down and entered the main building which was locked up, and through a crack in the door close to the kitchen had a close view of the animal. I saw that it had several body wounds with one eye badly injured. We surmised that probably this may have been due to an encounter where wild pigs had attacked it and it had sought refuge in the kitchen, which had no floor, refusing to budge due to fear. In the course of this incident this leopard charged and jumped at us when we were on the concrete roof slab of the toilet and out of danger. The second time this leopard charged at us when we all (bungalow occupants and my staff) were by the aluminium structure. On seeing the leopard charge and in panic the others closed the doors leaving me out and at the mercy of an injured and enraged leopard. Luckily for me I tugged at the door of the car parked nearby and found it unlocked and I clambered inside and locked myself. The leopard came close to the car, sniffed and sauntered back to its position by the kitchen door of the abandoned bungalow. We faced this problem all day but by dusk the injured leopard finally decided to move into the jungle. The following morning whilst washing rice, the wife of Game Guard Samelappu, who was in the Yala Qrs. had seen a leopard clsoeby and had locked herself up thinking this was the leopard referred to. She had remained so till the husband returned from Palatupana in the evening and allayed not only her fears but also appeased her hunger. Yet another interesting incident reported was when bungalow keeper Ukkubanda and Game Guard W.L.A. Piyadasa had witnessed a pack of jackals attacking a python. On hearing the weird calls of jackals for a while, they had stealthily approached the spot to find that a python had got hold of the hind leg of a jackal in its mouth and had coiled itself around the base of a small tree. The S.O.S. calls of the victim had attracted a pack of about six other jackals, who had taken turns in biting the python till it released its hold setting the victim free, after which all the jackals had moved in to the thicket. The python had been brought to the Buttuwa bungalow where it had been given the chilli/salt treatment for its several wounds. When I saw the python it had even managed to climb a 'malittan' tree but alas it had succumbed to its injuries when I saw it the following day. In the mid sixties, the late Mr. G.N.Q. De Silva was the Div. Game Ranger, Yala (now termed Park Warden) and I happened to be his assistant. A brainchild of Mr. Lyn de Alwis, the then Director of the Dept. approval was obtained to build a circuit bungalow at Mahaseelawa. It was decided that this bungalow be constructed using locally available materials and labour incurring minimum possible expenses to the Department. For this assignment, the qualifications required for recruitment of labourers were (a) knowledge of either carpentry or masonry, (b) a fair knowledge of building construction and, (c) be able bodied and physically fit. The building was constructed according to a simple plan suggested and supplied by our own staff and building operations commenced under the supervision of Mr. De Silva and myself. Cash expenditure were for items such us cement, bricks, lime, paint, bathroom, door and window fittings etc. and charges for the sawing of timber according to specifications. The cash expenses for the building may have been around only Rs. 40,000. Once completed this building has been used for close on 40 years and has stood the test of time. For their dedicated work and toil most of the labourers recruited were absorbed into the department and ended up as permanent and pensionable employees. It was on a similar basis that the park bungalows at Patanangala, Heenwewa and Thalgasmankada were constructed later on. Mahaseelawa happens to be the only bungalow in the park blessed with a supply of fresh sand-dune-filtered rain water. I also supervised this set of labourers when they constructed the existing culverts from the main road turn off to the Uraniya/Buttuwa plains. The 'Irish drain' or "Sapattu bookuwa" just past the Uraniya plains, was also constructed by them. This major task was carried out using available hume pipes, a few bags of cement and rock rubble and sand available just outside the park. These constructions were carried out breaking rest at night and in inclement weather conditions, using kerosene pressure lamps and lanterns to provide necessary light. Night work was resorted to, to avoid blockage of visitor vehicles entering the park and using this road as allowed during daytime. These economically and solidly constructed culverts and 'Irish drain' have withstood the passage of time with the ever increasing load of heavy vehicular traffic inside the park. Earlier wooden poles served as barriers at Bambowa and Heenwewa and it was during my term of office at Yala that the present permanent barrier gates were erected at these beats. Sad events It was when this construction work was being attended to that Guard W.L.A. Piyadasa and a couple of labourers had accidentally come across the skeletal remains of an elephant tusker in a stretch of jungle in between the Uraniya plains and the Buttuwa bungalow. This majestic tusker, very probably 'Raja' of Yala, roamed the park earlier and could not be traced for quite some time. This animal's almost symmetrical and magnificent pair of tusks were handed over to the Head Office, Colombo and the finders rewarded. (a) Some of the sadder events I was witness to first occurred in the year 1957 when we were under training at Yala. News reached us that Game Guard Mendis had been accidentally shot dead, in the Kirindi Oya riverbed, by a colleague in the course of a detection made at Tanamalwila. When this tragedy took place the one and only jeep stationed at Yala was out of order and my motorcycle provided transport for the investigating officers from Palatupana (H.Q.). The uniformed corpse of the late Mr. Mendis and the carcase of the deer involved in the detection were transported by bullock cart from the riverbed to the main road around midnight and from there, luckily, by a passing army vehicle to the Tanamalwila Hospital morgue. The following day my superior officer and I were permitted to witness the postmortem examination. Mr. Mendis had been shot in the head at point-blank range, as the gun-shot entry mark indicated. The shotgun pellets had ricochetted inside the brain cavity shattering the brain and the teeth in the process. After the post-mortem examination there being no undertakers anywhere closeby, the morgue labourer volunteered and performed the embalming using two bottles of arrack, one for embalming the corpse and one for himself. Mr. Mendis was shot dead due to the negligence of one of the Department officers who was lucky enough to evade the consequences. The late Mr. Mendis' photograph is displayed in the Ruhunu National Park Office Museum at Palatupana. I was Game Ranger, Yala, when In early April 1971, the first insurgency erupted resulting in the Kataragama area coming under the control of the insurgents. At this stage the Dept. staff stationed at kataragama, Katagamuwa and Galge abandoned station and flocked to palatupana H.Q. On the 17th of April that year, after the Army recaptured kataragama, I happened to visit the Kataragama Army Camp prior to posting the staff who had vacated the area. On this fateful day I was an eye-witness to the brutal and senseless murder of Premawathie Manamperi who was exhibited and shot in the nude. This incident was all the more heart-breaking as I knew Premawathie as a school girl when her father G.M.D. Hendirick Appuhamy was serving under me at Kataragama. I could not voice my sentiments at that time as The Army was all-powerful, however, later I gave evidence in the Lower Courts, Hambantota and High Courts, Galle where the two volunteer Army Officers were found guilty and sentenced to a term of 16 years imprisonment each. Maybe as retribution one of them died in prison whilst the other had been murdered on his early release. Premawathie had been shot thrice before she died. Before the final shot was fired she had sat up by her hastily dug grave and requested 'Aladin Mama' who was there to hand over her pair of earrings to her sister. Later on I checked up on this from Premawathie's mother and found it to be true, as 'Aladin mama' has fulfilled her request. crocodile In the mid 1980's I was the Park Warden, Yala, when I was informed of the bold behaviour of a crocodile frequenting the bathing spot in the Palatupana 'wewa'. As the staff and labourers used this tank for drinking, washing and bathing purposes I had all-concerned suitably warned of the danger from crocodiles. Four of the labourers, disregarding my warning, had attempted to swim across the 'wewa' to their camp for the tea break. The crocodiles had noticed this and had made a bee-line towards the swimmers directing their attention to the lad in the lead. At about 10.30 a.m. that day I heard the shouts and wails of the other labourers and was just in time to see this lad being attacked and dragged under water, with not even a ripple seen thereafter. That day all efforts made to retrieve the body had proved futile. The following day the searchers, by chance, had managed to ward off some crocodiles and bring ashore the badly mutilated and headless section of the torso. It was a pathetic sight indeed. The 'remains' of this 18 year old lad was handed over to his aggrieved parents to be given a Muslim burial in his hometown, Hambantota. |
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