Graduation day

Life begins anew at the Udawalawe National Park:

By Dhaneshi Yatawara

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Its been a week since Minoli, Senani, Asha, Marga, Atlas, Nalaka, Tharos and Baby blue were sent away from their nursery. Now this four-year-old elephant team, the 08th Batch of the Elephant Transit Home or better known as ‘Eth Athuru Sevana’ - has to survive totally on their own against the challenges of Mother Nature.

Few days back, the monitoring team had seen them roaming with a herd of female elephants in Thimbirimankada in the Gonawid dagala area which is four and half kilometres from the place where they were released to the wild in Seenuggala. All eight of them have been roaming together by the side of the resevoir in that area.

“They are used to the Udawalawa forest,” said Dr. Suhada Jayawardane, the veterinarian of the Elephant Transit Home (ETH). “Even when they were under our care we release them to these forests in the day time. They stay as one herd and they roam in the forest as they like. This is important simply because it is going to be their future home,” Dr. Jayawardane added.

According to him the ones who are also fed with milk rush back to the ETH for their feeding hours and others, well...at times need to be dragged in by the mahouts.

The day starts around six in the morning followed by eight milk ‘meals’. Those less than one year old are given approximately 4.7litres (six bottles of 750ml). This is the maximum. According to the care-takers this also depends on the weight of the young elephant. They would start feeding on rough food, that is grass, when they are around six months. Gradually they will totally convert to grass and herbs when they are two and half years old.

These little ones know how to find food, how to extract food, where to find water and almost all the basic necessities to survive in the Udawalawa forest - home to the ‘Walawe Raja’ the forty-year-old hefty looking elephant, the pride of Udawalwa. Now they have to gain more experience to live in the jungle as they grow up.

They have just touched the waves of the sea of knowledge infront of them. They will learn a lot in their long years of life - may be from Uncle Walawe Raja and all the other elephant uncles and aunts they would meet.

“Elephant herds do welcome new comers. If someone says that normally they do not accept new comers like these young elephants whom we release to the wild, it is totally a myth,” Dr. Tharaka Prasad, a Deputy Director of the Wild Life Conservation Department told us. Confirming his statement Dr. Jayawardana explained that acceptance or nonacceptance depends on the nature of the herd. Like humans, elephants also have different characteristics.

It all started on June 14. The eighth batch of the ETH was going to leave their nursery. May be the day started for them just like the other days and I wondered whether they sensed the change that was yet to take place, since they are the smartest animals walking on this earth. The 08th batch was going to face the toughest challenge, just like the other ones of their previous batches.

Saving the Sri Lankan elephant is the biggest challenge infront of these eight elephant youngsters. And will be the responsibility of the elephant youngsters who are yet to come. On top of all, it is the utmost duty of us, the humans, to protect these innocent creatures and let them live peacefully in their wilderness.

Elephant population was mounting up to 12, 000 at the turn of the century in Sri Lanka, Dr. Jayawardane said. Dr. Jayawardana explained this at the special briefing he made to the distinguished gathering at the newly built elephant museum, in the middle of Udawalawa National Park.

The elephant population started declining hastily, with the rapid pace of mega development projects implemented in the dry zone, the main habitat of elephants. Thick jungles are not favourites of the elephants. Now we have only 4000 elephants.

“These are globally endangered species. The world only has these 4000 as the Sri Lankan elephant,” Dr. Jayawardana reiterated. Elephants are threatened by the human population increase from four million to the present nearly 20 million.

According to statistics 150 elephants die each year and 50 humans die as a result of Human elephant conflict, in Sri Lanka. The main threat is killing elephants to protect food and crops. Others are poaching, deforestation, drought and starvation. Today the Sri Lankan Elephant mainly occupies the dry-zone forests, although a small population lives in rainforests.

Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Patali Champika Ranawaka said 23% of total land in Sri Lanka are reserved either under the Wildlife Department or the Forest Conservation Department. He added that as the population of the country grows the Government has to concentrate on development programs resulting deforestation thus, declining elephant habitats.

We receive young elephants to the ETH who have become helpless mainly because of human activities. At times the mother elephant is gunned down or poisoned or at times they have fallen in to abandoned gem pits or in to wells in abandoned ‘chenas’or gets trapped in snares set for other animals,” Dr. Jayawardana explained. If the elephant mother is old she will not be able to feed the baby for long. And in some cases inexperienced mothers because to their ignorance tend to neglect feeding her baby.

“There is one tusker in the recently released batch and it had gun shot wounds when we found him,” he added.

An elephant’s day is spent eating about 16 hours, drinking, bathing, dusting, wallowing, playing and resting for about three to five hours. The Sri Lankan Elephant is an herbivore. It eats grasses, leaves, bark, fallen fruits such as wood apple and palm leaves. Kitul tree, ‘Caryota urens’, is a favourite food.

Large bulls need nearly 300kg of food per day. Yet the feeding habits depend on the size of the elephant and the availability of food. If more succulent leaves and plants are available elephants do not have to eat longer hours.

As an elephant only digests some 40 percent of what it eats, it needs tremendous amounts of vegetation (approximately 5 percent of its body weight per day) and about 30 to 50 gallons of water.

A young elephant must learn how to draw water up into its trunk and then pour it into its mouth. Elephants eat an extremely varied vegetarian diet, including grass, leaves, twigs, bark, fruit and seed pods. The fibrous content of their food and the great quantities consumed makes for large volumes of dung.

Elephants are very attentive mothers, and because most elephant behaviour has to be learned, they keep their offspring with them for many years.

With the natural and man made dangers these little ones will have a tough time in surviving in the forests.

The biggest achievement of the ETH and its staff is Sandamali - a fourteen-year-old elephant of the second batch of the Transit Home. Now she proudly roams in the forest with her months old baby.

The Wild life officers saw her with the baby since February this year. A female elephant sexually matures at the age of 12 and a male at the age of 16. In all the eight batches released by the ETH only Sandamali is above this range and others are below or close to 12 year of age.

“These animals are within the park. So They are safe. But naturally they move to areas out of the park which are not wild life natural reserves,” Dr. Jayawardana said.

The ‘Walawe Raja’ - the symbol of Udawalawa natural reserve - is seen in the park only for two months and rest of the year he is observed in Bogahapattiya in the Kalthota area, which is not a wild life natural reserve. Elephas maximus maximus (in italics), the Sri Lankan elephant, is a significant member of the Kingdom Animalia, phylum Chordata, class Mammalia and the family Elephantidae.

An important cultural sybiosis exist between the elephant and humans for over 2000 years. No religious possession is complete without its retinue of elephants. Many leading Buddhist temples have their own elephants.

The Sri Lankan elephant, is the largest of the Asian elephants. The male have large cranial bulges and both sexes have more areas of depigmentation than found in the other asian types. Typically, their ears, face, trunk and belly have large concentrations of pink-speckled skin.

If our activities destroy these innocent creatures we are gradually loosing the only 4000 Sri Lankan elephants in the world. If we are to rehabilitate the elephants already in danger, Sri Lankan natural forest reserves need to be made accessible and secured for the elephants to survive. We have an enriched habitat. In many natural reserves the reservoir bed serves a constant water supply and results a lush vegetation. Thus, making ample food for the elephants.

As a concept brought forward by the Environment Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka “Gaja Mithuro’ foundation was set up since May, 2007. It comprises of Governmental and Non Governmental organizations and has already implemented a National Policy to protect elephants.

It aims to end the human - elephant conflict and create coexistence, the Ministry states. In addition, as a preventive measure to the human elephant conflict, the Ministry plans to build 660 kilometre long electric fence within three years. The funds are already allocated to the Wildlife Department and the expedited program is scheduled to end in three years.

Along with the ‘Gama Neguma’ Development program the Ministry of Environment has launched a new concept - Haritha Gammana. Under this concept the villagers are educated on the environmental issues they are facing in their respective areas.

Did you know?

1) The elephant is distinguished by its high level of intelligence, interesting behaviour, methods of communication and complex social structure.

2) Elephants seem to be fascinated with the tusks and bones of dead elephants, fondling and examining them. The myth that they carry them to secret “elephant burial grounds,” however, has no factual base.

3) Elephants are very social, frequently touching and caressing one another and entwining their trunks.

4) Elephants demonstrate concern for members of their families they take care of weak or injured members and appear to grieve over a dead companion.