Animal rights activists raise concern:

Elephants released under strict criteria -DG National Zoological Gardens

By Shanika SRIYANANDA

Baby elephant Abaya was not lucky to survive in its own habitat not in an alien land, due to the cruelty meted out by its masters. In 1995, Abaya was forcibly taken to a famous temple in the South. After a five-year stint, one fine day, he was found dead. The cause of death was endorsed as 'cruelty by the mahout', who bad repeatedly assaulted the young animal at each session of the training process.

The punishable offence went unheard, while the mahout who 'killed' Abaya was assigned to another task - looking after 'Lasanda', who was donated to the Sri Vishnu Dewalaya from the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage (PEO).

Animal rights groups are now up in arms against the authorities who continue to 'donate' tamed elephants to people who had 'poor' past records of taking care of animals. "There are enough cases to show that the authorities are releasing elephants from Pinnawala to the same group of people who don't take care of the animals.

Though officials boast that the animals are under close surveillance, they don't do any monitoring once an elephant is released to a private owner.

Otherwise, why don't they blacklist owners who carelessly handle these elephants", the Director Sri Lanka Environment Trust Sajeewa Chamikara, queried.

He recalled another incident, where two elephants - Gajaba and Sinharaja- from Pinnawela were released to the Polwatta Temple in Kollupitiya in 1994. Sinharaja, who was chained in close proximity of a railway track in Giriulla, was killed after being struck by lightning. Without considering the cause of death due to poor handling of the animal by the caretaker, Esala - an elephant from the orphanage was once again donated to the same person who took care of elephants of the Sasanawardena Temple of Meerigama.

Vishwa of the orphanage was donated to the same temple in 2001 and now is in a nature park in Ja-Ela.Chamikara blamed officials of the orphanage for donating elephants to temples, private owners and those interested in 'showing' that they owned elephants while they are not financially capable of providing the required environment for the animal.

"Sama, the tamed elephant donated to the Allenmathiniyaramaya Polhengoda from Pinnawela, is being looked after by a mahout who was chased away from Pinnawala for the alleged killing of elephant Nilagiri in the Pinnawela Orphanage.

This is why we question where is the monitoring system of the so-called institutions after releasing elephants from Pinnawela", he said.

Chamikara said animal activists were not against donating elephants from Pinnawela for cultural and religious events, but there was a need to implement a proper system where a group of elephants are trained for these events.

"Plans were drawn to implement this during former Minister A.H.M Fowzie's tenure but due to pressure from certain groups who feared of losing the income generated through elephants being used for cultural events and other activities, the then government abandoned the idea", he said.

However, activists claim that elephants in the PEO are facing danger as they are given away to temples and other interested parties on political and personnel influence without following stipulated requirements.

According to statistics, the purpose of giving elephants to private owners to breed was futile as only three births were recorded from elephants given for domestication, while there have been 67 births from elephants at Pinnawala. " The main reason for private owners not having captive breeding is that when a female elephant gets pregnant, the owner loses the income they earned from her during her pregnancy period which is 22-long months.

It is also costly as they need extra allocation to maintain a pregnant she elephant", he said adding that the country's most magnificent tuskers - 'Raja' and 'Millangoda Maha Atha', the elephant with the longest tusks in Asia, died without being able to pass on their genes.He said most of the elephants in temples and with private owners suffer due to malnutrition and cruelty.

The situation has aggravated with the Cabinet Paper No. 11/1182/579/017 submitted on May 25, 2011 which has given permission to release elephants from PEO to private owners. "Over 12 elephants have been given to temples and private owners since June last year. since its inception, over 66 elephants including six tuskers were released to temples and private owners.

In 2009, two baby tuskers were forcibly taken away by an influential person. and there were six tuskers", he said.

Chamikara said plans were under way to release 'Sumana', the only tusker of the PEO to a politician and if the deal takes place, the PEO would lose the only animal remaining for captive breeding.

He also revealed a plan to release another six elephants including 'Mihiri' (6) and 'Mahasen' (7) under a animal exchange program with Iran and Czech Republic. According to informed sources it is sad to note about the fate of some of the elephants in temples as they have become walking skeletons due to lack of proper care and nutrition. Most of the elephants are being used in safaris and transportation of illegally felled trees.

The mahouts who were found guilty of ill-treating elephants are given the task of taking care of elephants under other owners.

Meanwhile, activists requested the Department of Wildlife Conservation and the Department of National Zoological Gardens to set up a DNA register for all elephants at Pinnawala and tamed elephants belonging to private owners to have a proper surveillance of these elephants.

A written request was sent to the Director General of the National Zoological Gardens, Bashwara Senanka Gunaratne on July 08, 2011 about establishing a DNA data base of these elephants and also a system to attach microchips on each elephant for easy trekking of the animal.

Activists claim their requests have fallen deaf ears and no response was forthcoming.

They request the authorities concerned to draw plans to protect the number of captive elephants which are fast diminishing and to implement new plans not to gain political mileages but to have long-term plans to conserve jumbos in captivity.

When contacted the DG National Zoological Gardens, refuted the claims of releasing elephants from the PEO in an adhoc manner and said the PEO faces no such allegations. " How many times we have clarified this issue with the media, but some NGOs raise this issue from time to time. We always said that there is a severe dearth of tamed elephants and only 115 elephants circulate for all the cultural and religious events. We need to address the issue as the country needs to maintain these important and historical events for postering", he said adding the country's tamed elephants are over-used and were heavily stressed.

He said no owner was allowed to use elephants released from the PEO in the transportation of goods and also in safaris, but were only permitted to use them in religious and cultural events. However, Gunaratne agreed that 12 elephants from the PEO were released to temples and private owners under a tough criteria which has post-surveillance about the animal's well-being.

"But I want to highlight that no elephant was given under the new program we commenced mid May 2011.

Selection and monitoring will be done according to a criteria prepared by a Committee headed by the Secretary of Ministry of Wildlife and will look into the financial status of the applicant and the environment to shelter an elephant", he said.Gunaratne spelt out new plans to provide facilities for elephants in the PEO under a comprehensive plan. " The existing land will be expanded by adding another 28 acres of adjoining land in Pinnawela and Rs. 100 million has been allocated. Another project was to set up an alternative PEO similar to Pinnawela.

We are doing a feasibility study at the moment to select a land suitable for elephants.

The main purpose is to provide more care for animals and also to promote captive breeding to find solutions for the dwindling number of elephants in the country", he said.

Referring to a letter received by the Wildlife Conservation Trust, which proposed to set up a DNA data base for all elephants in the PEO and to fix micro chips to animals to track them easily to maintain a better monitoring system, Gunaratne said the proposal to fix microchips on PEO animals was a good idea but he disagreed with setting up a DNA data base for them."We will not have a DNA data as it runs the risk of pirating genes of our elephants", he said adding that the Department of National Zoological Gardens would take every step to protect animals.

Meanwhile, the DG refuted allegations of releasing any elephant back to those who were cruel to these animals.

The tug-of-war between animal activists and the Wildlife Authorities continues for several years without any solution in sight. The need of the hour is to get all into one fold and explore possibilities of saving and taking care of the already dwindling number of tamed elephants.

Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage (PEO)

Situated in Rambukkana, Kegalle, it was started in 1975 by the Department of Wildlife Conservation with five baby elephants on a twenty five acre land on the banks of the Maha Oya river to take care and protection for baby elephants, whose mothers either died or have been killed. Being an attraction among local and foreign visitors, the income from which helps to maintain the orphanage and it is also among the few elephant orphanages in the world.In 1978, the PEO was taken over by the National Zoological Gardens and a captive breeding program was launched in 1982 with twelve animals, five of whom were babies.

In 1997, there were 52 animals of which there were 10 babies under 3 years of age.

* 1975: 5 baby elephants
* 1978: 12 elephants, of those 5 babies.
* 1997: 56 elephants
* 1998: 63 elephants
* 2000: 70 elephants
* 2003: 65 elephants
* 2010: 84 elephants

The conducive environment for breeding at Pinnawela made the elephant breeding program a success with Vijaya and Neela and females Kumari, Anusha, Mathalie and Komali giving birth to baby elephants. Sukumalee was the first baby elephant born in orphanage and in mid 1998 there have been fourteen births, eight males and six females at Pinnawela, with one second generation birth in early 1998.Since then, 84 were born at the PEO and 12 were released to temples and private owners since June last year. Shama (female, aged 24), Lasanda (female, aged 18), Mihindu (male, aged 13), Haritha (male, aged 10 years), Atlas (male, aged seven), Charaka (male, aged five)Asela (male aged 8), Tharindu (male aged 5), Wasana ( Male aged 11), Arjuna ( male aged 14) and Vishwa (male aged 5) were among those.