... and the magnificent tusker lay still

by Shanika SRIYANANDA

The wildlife enthusiasts would proudly remember their last glimpse of the majestic beast in their treks to Galgamuwa. Slowly emerging from the scrub jungle with its shining long tusks and majestically roaming in the wild, it would surely make them stand still and to hold their breath in awe for a moment.

But not anymore.

Those who captured him in their cameras, now have a picture to save for the future. The majestic tusker, most probably the only tusker with the longest tusks among the wild elephants in Sri Lanka, kissed the earth goodbye last week.

The tusker, a unique gift of nature that many were proud of, died leaving some doubts and appealing man to leave them alone in their much loved homelands.

If its death has not moved anybody in authority to implement a proper strategy to prevent 'jumbo' deaths, it will hopefully help resolve the decades long cry for and end to the Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC), which is increasing the death toll rapidly due the escalating fight for a space to live.

"My heart broke, as I saw the magnificent tusks shining dully, their full length hidden by the foliage. This was undoubtedly the largest tusker I had ever seen in this country. I felt so fortunate to have seen this animal. It was amazing how he had survived all these years, but was pleasantly reminded that its elusiveness and difficulty to track, was the very reason it was still alive," a well-known wildlife photographer Vajira Wijegunawardane once said recalling his encounter with the tusker, this year.

It is a miracle that the 35-year-old elephant which is nearly nine feet in height owning a magnificent pair of tusks of over 5 feet length, was kept hidden from the poachers who had mercilessly killed some tuskers like Kumana tusker to grab their ivory.

But, the 'Siyambalangamuwa Maha Etha' (tusker) could not prevent fate on November 23. Before he stepped into the alien land- Udawalawe, where he was forced to live, he breathed his last to say 'he is not ready for a new environment'.

It was cause for the entire country to mourn last week, for, out of a total population of seven tuskers, the country lost the most 'prized' one.

The blame has been heaped at the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWLC) for its poor handling of the translocation with its poor facilities and also for continuing with the same ineffective measure - translocation.

"The Department takes the responsibility and we did our best to translocate the tusker," DWLC Deputy Director Wildlife Health Management Dr. Tharaka Prasad, who led the team to capture the elephant, said.

Explaining the 'drama of relocation' step by step, the process took three hours - to tranquilize, and the chain of activities that lasted for one and half days until the jumbo was loaded onto the lorry. It was later confirmed that the cause of death was suffocation due to its bad posture after being loaded onto the lorry.

"While I was engaged in capturing one elephant at Pandulagama, I was asked to capture the tusker as it was causing damage, killing a person and injuring a woman seriously on November 21 night", Dr. Prasad said. Subsequently his team had to abandon the first mission and rush to the scene as it appeared urgent. Dr. Prasad, after meeting the relevant authorities including the Police, started the mission by tracking the foot path of the elephant which entered the Galgamuwa catchment. The team encountered the tusker and injected the tranquillizing drugs with a remote dart.

He said the tusker was identified as a 'trouble maker' and was listed as the tenth elephant to be translocated among 25 to 30 elephants in the North-Western region that includes the Kurunegala, Puttalam, Anuradhapura, Vavuniya, Kilinochchi and upto Jaffna district.

Being an experienced veterinarian, who has translocated over 75 elephants including tuskers, he too believes that translocation is not the best option. "But what else could be done when an elephant is causing damage and killing villagers?", he asked.

Refuting all allegations mounting against the DWLC as 'nonsense', he said his team, including another veterinarian, had taken all the necessary accepted steps to capture the tusker, which walked for two hours 50 minutes before it laid down on a paddy field after being tranquillized. It was allowed to sleep and have a good rest throughout the night while being under observation. Two ropes were used to tie the animal which regained consciousness within 25 minutes.

"I personally checked its health before loading to the vehicle which had transported nearly 60 animals including elephants. The tusker had a weight of 4,000 kg and was given some sedatives. But the tusker was very stubborn and damaged the floorboard of the lorry using its right tusk", he said.

The team planned to release the tusker to the Maduruoya National Park during sunset but upon reaching Thambutthegama they had noticed it lay with an uncomfortable and unusual posture with tightly locked limbs and its right front leg in another hole of the floorboard.

"We tried to rescue the tusker by repairing the floorboard but noticed that the animal could not stand due to the uncomfortable posture.

"We tried to rescue him and opened the rear door of the lorry and loosened the ropes on the front legs", Dr. Prasad said adding all their attempts to save its life became futile as it died due to external pressure on lungs and heart.

Dr. Prasad said that some interested parties had held their own post-mortems that claimed the elephant died due to a high dose of tranquillizing drugs, transporting the animal at a high speed and that it was chained.

"I am open for any criticism and I refute all these allegations and strongly say that we followed all the safe measures and did our best to translocate the tusker safely. It was given the correct dose of tranquilizers and it was in good health and we used only sedative drugs", he said.

Dr. Prasad said the vehicle, which could be driven at a maximum speed of 80km per hour with an elephant tied safely, was driven at a low speed as the road was under construction.

He also refuted the claim by private elephant owners that the tusker was chained and said they never chained a wild animal but used ropes.

"It is the most magnificent tusker that I have seen in the wild", he said.

The footprints of this magnificent and majestic Siyabalangamuwe 'Maha Etha' that were left in the jungles of the Galgamuwa would disappear soon.

The need of the hour is 'learn a lesson' from the death of the magnificent tusker and end man-made death traps to protect the species which are already in the brink of extinction.

A prominent legal expert on environmental issues Jagath Gunawardena who is disappointed about the death of the valuable tusker said it was an accidental death but stressed the need for looking at the issue more rationally without 'framing' it as HEC. "The ad hoc measures like elephant drives and translocations need to be evaluated and the core issue of the problem is the habitat destruction", he said.

He said people concerned needed to pose the issue as the HEC to continue to turn a blind eye on the real issue. "There are pocketed herds due to unplanned development and these issues need to be addressed separately. Nobody seems to be looking at the cause why this tusker became a problem. It is mainly because the environment that he lived could not support his survival due to rapid destruction and degradation of the eco-system that kept on", he said.

Some studies show that the two main methods - elephant drives and translocation - adopted by the DWLC have proved unsuccessful so far. Scientist and the Chairman, Centre for Conservation and Research Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando said it was a tragic accident that killed the country's most beautiful and biggest tusker in the wilds but its death would make the authorities evaluate the success rate of translocation of elephants.

He said it was not fair to tag the tusker as having died due to negligence of the DWLC but translocation was not a very effective measure to resolve the conflict. " The success rate of translocation of elephants is less than 20 percent as the animal keeps on returning to its original habitat", Dr. Fernando, who is conducting research on elephants and its related issues for over 15 years said.

The CCR, which is doing research together with the DWLC, is especially researching on translocation of elephants for the past six years. Dr.

Fernando said it was unique the two separate entities carrying out research jointly and the DWLC, needed to develop the concept of electric fencing on the problematic elephants rather than forcibly dropping them to 'alien' habitats.

"A wild elephant which played havoc in the Ahetuwewa, Galgamuwa was released to the Somawathi National Park over 100 km away from its environs. But he returned to his habitat trekking 243km within 30-days. The elephants are very attached to their original environs. Those who forget their way back home enter into villages or towns and cause damage. Some settle down in the new location but cause damages to the surrounding villages", he said.

According to Dr. Fernando, out of 17 elephants that were monitored, only two settled down in the new habitat while six died after translocation and others returned.

But he agreed when an elephant was terrorizing a village, there won't be any other solution than translocating the animal to save the lives of both.

The social structure of the elephant causes the situation. The single adults, mainly the males, cause problems. He said it was complex and difficult to control the situation and isolating all problematic elephants into a location surrounded by electric fences would be the ideal option but it has proved a failure so far.

Dr. Fernando said the Siyabalanduwe tusker had not become a problem or a killer in its lifetime except on the recent two occasions.

"There were no complaints against him. But the two incidents - killing a man and a woman happened due to their negligence. The man who was killed by the tusker was fishing at 4 in the morning in the Galgamuwa Lake, where over 25 elephants were in the Lake to drink water, and he was attacked. The woman was going to a neighbour's house in the dark and was said to be attacked by the tusker", he said casting doubts whether the villagers were able to correctly identify the killer.

The expert suggests the DWLC to have a correct identification system of the problematic wild elephants, even introducing a radio collar system to monitor them and to translocate only the problematic animals into the well-guarded location with electric fences to prevent them entering the nearby villages.

"I have seen him in the wild and never seen such a majestic tusker", he said adding the DWLC needs to do more research on the very complex issue and take more effective measures to prevent such unfortunate deaths in future.

Its body was buried in the banks of the Siyabalangamuwa Lake, where it always loved to roam and its tusks will be exhibited at the Wildlife Museum at Girithale. However, the death of Siyabalangamuwe 'Maha Etha', which did not have a single fight with a human throughout his life, died posing a question : Why did he start attacking the villagers recently and did the wildlife authorities correctly identify the culprit ?