Pachyderms in focus:

Jumbo operation to count elephants

By Dhaneshi YATAWARA

After months of careful planning, training and organising, wildlife authorities are ready to launch the mammoth task of counting and studying the Sri Lankan elephant population. The islandwide elephant survey will be conducted from August 11 - 13, 2011 covering 15 national parks. The ultimate success of this mission would be laying a proper path for a sustainable elephant conservation to which the survey and study will be a foundation.

According to the Department of Wildlife Conservation this is a Rs. 20 million worth mission which has received funding from generous private companies and institutes, both local and international.

Undoubtedly it is the hope of every nature enthusiastic Sri Lankan that this elephant survey will greatly support to save our elephants at a time when the entire country is heading towards a rapid development. This survey would definitely back up the proper implementation of the National Policy for the Conservation and Management of Wild Elephants formulated in 2006. Considering past statistics the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) has spent more than 50 percent of its working time and allocated budget to mitigate the human-elephant conflict. In order to bring a sustainable solution to the Human-Elephant Conflict knowing the numbers (of elephants) is crucial.

Dr. Chandrawansa Pathiraja	S.R.B. Dissanayake

The elephant, Sri Lankan flagship species, belongs to the Asian elephant category of the global elephant population.

The Asian elephant population is distributed in the Southeast Asia from India in the west to Borneo in the east.

Three subspecies of these giants are recognised in the region - i.e. elephas maximus maximus from Sri Lanka, the Indian elephant elephas maximus indicus from mainland Asia, and elephas maximus sumatranus from the island of Sumatra.

The Asian elephant is listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) which highlights the most endangered among the CITES-listed animals and plants.

They are threatened with extinction and CITES prohibits international trade in specimens of these species except when the purpose of the import is not commercial.

"Asian elephants are cramped in 13 countries in the region comparatively to the African elephants which lives in 57 countries of the subcontinent," said DWC's Deputy Director for Research and Training S.R.B. Dissanayake. Thus undoubtedly knowing the exact number of elephant population is vital for a harmonised existence of elephants and humans.

Difficulty

To a non technical person, counting elephants, would seem to be easy to carry out accurately because of their size. Professor Charles Santhiapillai - a leading elephant expert involved in the survey - point out in one of his earlier papers named 'Counting elephants in wild', that "Unfortunately, it is more difficult to count elephants in a forest than fish in a pond!

According to Dissanayake 1553 observation points are set up island wide. "At each point an official from the DWC will be available along with the assistance from individuals from several Non Governmental Organizations as well as volunteering environmentalists and villagers from the respective areas," Dissanayake added. For the survey in the Northern Province the Sri Lanka Army has extended their helping hand. Along with the wildlife officials, soldiers of the Army will search the wilderness of the North that was unexplored nearly for two decades.

Elephants could be mistakenly recounted or would be mis-counted as the subjective area is large. Surveys are usually conducted using the sampling method. A smaller area is surveyed, the animals counted, sexed and classified at specific localities where elephants are likely to come - for example water holes. Generally, such surveys are conducted during the peak, the drought period as elephants are expected to visit the few remaining water holes. With the onset of rain, elephants tend to move in to other areas where water is abundant, Dissanayake explained. Thus the ideal period for Sri Lanka would be either August or September. As the wildlife authorities further explained, counting elephants at a water hole brings an advantage as it enables to find out the population structure and composition as well. It will enable the authorities to determine the proportion of calves relative to the adult females. This will also help identify the tuskers - the ones that are most vulnerable in the wild.

"There is a wide variety of survey methods and each method has its advantages and disadvantages," Dissanayake explained further. The objectives of the survey are mainly to determine the composition of the population,to find out the proportion of calves, juveniles, sub-adults and adults, to determine the proportion of tuskers, the sex ratio and to the health condition of the animals. Following globally recognised mechanisms the Wildlife authorities have set up a methodology to class elephants according to their age. Elephants under three feet in height are considered as calves. Juvenile elephants would be those between 3 feet and 4.5 feet. Elephants with a height between 4.5 and 6 are considered as sub adults and adults are 6 feet and more.

Special training programs for the non wildlife officials - i.e. volunteers, villagers, army personnel - were conducted by the DWC as well as at their regional level. Pocket meetings were held at village level to educate the villagers.

Pest to asset

The survey is solely conducted to tackle elephant conservation and identify problems that crop up with elephants damaging the food crops of the farmers. "The DWC is the management authority for elephant and other wildlife in the country. Thus it is necessary for us to know the status of our elephant population," DWC Director General Dr. Chandrawansa Pathiraja said. "We need to exactly know whether the population is increasing, decreasing or remaining stable. We need these inputs in order to reduce conflict and to relax pressure on habitats," Dr. Pathiraja further said.

As their densities increase, people become more and more intolerant of wildlife that threatens their livelihoods. According to the DWC, at present wild elephants are being killed at the rate of three animals per week. These animals are not solely killed for tusks and they're not killed for their meat, they are being slaughtered simply because they interfere with agriculture and threaten the livelihood of people. To villagers of an effected areas elephants have become an unwelcome burden and a dangerous pest. The mindset of people need to be enlightened with the value of an elephant as an asset to the natural eco-system in which the humans are at the receiving end. For generations our predecessors lived with this giant wonder of the mother nature - except may be for few accidents. Yet, overall Sri Lankans have treated the elephant as a symbol of pride rather a pest.

While introducing new management methods to mitigate Human-Elephant conflict and save the elephant a brainstorming mechanism to change the atitude of the public is necessary. Creating a peaceful environment for these innocent beasts to roam, protecting their right to live is vital for the survival of our flagship species.