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| Sunday, 3 March 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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The end of a handsome prince
We were up early Friday morning, excited at the prospect of treating the wounds of yet another unfortunate victim of a trap gun. The Anuradhapura Wildlife staff led by Dr. Tharaka Presad, Asst. Director (Veterinary) set off towards the edge of a forest patch in Galkiriyagama where the injured elephant had been seen the previous evening. As we drove along a gravel road, we saw so many houses built close together that I doubted the truth of the report that there was a marauding elephant in among them. Before we could reach the spot where the animal had been seen the previous night excited villagers were shouting that the animal had died. We were led to the spot just 10 yards from a man's house where, in the drainage pit of the lavatory, the most pathetic sight awaited us. A perfect example of a young bull with not a blemish on its ashy grey skin, lay stone dead his head twisted at an ugly angle, trunk outstretched, the fore legs inside the pit, the hind legs outside. The body was warm and it didn't take us long to reconstruct the scene.
The cultivator said he awoke at 6.30 a.m. and opened the front door. Lo and behold! a large grey head showed above the tall grass not 10 yards away. He shouted out but the elephant only shook his head. Rushing inside he brought out some crackers and lit them. With a "whoosh" the elephant retracted. The next instant he heard the walls of the make shift lavatory tumble and then silence. He took a few steps and he saw the animal but couldn't believe his eyes, for there lying stone dead was the animal he had only meant to scare away. His neighbour whose house was 15 feet away came screaming out, but he stopped in his tracks. The unsuspecting animal had walked between the two houses to try to reach the forest behind. Even in death, the seven foot prince looked beautiful. The only wound we could see was one near the left knee. Tharaka identified it as a trap-gun wound. He went to work on it. We saw how the pellets had shattered the knee bones, the passage of the pellets, now gorged with two inch thick pus, looked like a flexible hose. He must have been in agony. In his blind flight he missed his footing and plunged headlong into the concealed pit. The impact of chest on brick and mortar probably caused the fracture of the neck which caused instantaneous death. Another member of the pride of our faunal heritage passed away unceremoniously, the 33rd in the first six months of 2001 in the Anuradhapura District alone. This tragedy epitomizes the disregard of local decision makers for the importance of crying halt to indiscriminately robbing elephants of their rightful homes and rights of passage and doling them out to so-called cultivators who are often encroachers and squatters from far away. |
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