ASIAN ELEPHANTS IN SRI LANKA

Sri Lankan elephant female and young, Yala National Park, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is home to its own subspecies of elephant. The Sri Lankan elephant (Elephas maximus maximus) is native to Sri Lanka and one of three recognised subspecies of the Asian elephant. It is the type subspecies of the Asian elephant and was first described by Carl Linnaeus under the binomial Elephas maximus in 1758. [Source: Wikipedia]

There are around 7,000 elephants in Sri Lanka, most of them wild ones. This is down from around 12,000 elephants in he early 1900s. Their numbers have shrunk due to loss of habitat as a result of agriculture, population growth and deforestation. In the 1990s and early 2000s it was difficult to make an accurate count of elephants because the Tamil Tigers made some parks off limits. With much of the country’s land developed, Sri Lanka's elephants are forced to share almost 70 percent of their habitat with humans.

The elephant population of Sri Lanka has dramatically been affected by the loss of habitat. Between 1975 and 1994 the number of elephants requiring help has jumped from none to 56. There are some herds that are trapped in small pockets of forest that don’t produce enough sustenance to maintain them. The pockets are surrounded by inhabited areas. that they venture and make nuisances of themselves.

There are around 300 working elephants in Sri Lanka. The are used in sport, work, village life, festivities. There is little need for them in logging or hauling. Most are used in temples and tourism. In the old days they were valued at $9,000 a piece, and earned $8 for a four-hour work day.

In Sri Lanka, large herds are rounded up like cattle on a cattle drive. In 1979 one herd of 150 wild elephants grouped in clusters over a 150 square mile area was herded 30 miles to Wilpattu National Park. "Night after night," wrote naturalist Lyn de Alwis, "our enthusiastic rangers and other trained employees — with thunderous firecrackers, brilliant flares, bonfires, and their own raucous hooting, howling, and caterwauling — persuaded recalcitrant elephants to abandon their familiar haunts for places unknown, and not to sneak back!...Because of its complexities, the relocation of those animals took full 12 months."

Asian Elephants and Sri Lankan Culture

Elephants have traditionally been regarded as sacred and associated with royalty in Sri Lanka. Considered the property of kings, they frequently pop time as symbols and icons and have been used to tamp down the foundations of Sri Lanka’s most sacred temples. According to an ancient Sri Lankan belief if you creep under the belly of an elephant it will keep you safe from the evil eye and bad planetary effects and drive away your fears. It used to be considered a serious crime to kill or harm an elephant.

Elephants play an important role in festivals. The highest honor for an elephant is to carry the carry caskets with sacred 34 relics, including Buddha’s tooth, from the Temple of the Tooth during a big August festival in Kandy. The tooth-carrying elephant must have several physical attributes that qualify it as a "Sathdantha" elephant. "Sathdantha" mean that when an elephant stands up seven points much touch the ground — the four legs, the trunk, tail and penis. The elephant must also stand 3.6 meters high, have a flat back and the tusks must be formed in the shape of a traditional winnow.

The last elephant that met all the "Sathdantha" was an animal named Raja. Since he died in July 1988, organizers of the pageant have had a difficult time finding a permanent replacement. The temple own 13 elephants, seven of which can lead the pageant. Raja was declared a national asset. When he died the government ordered a day of national morning. He is now kept in glass-encased chamber. Thousand worship the animal.

Wasana is a a temple tusker over 50 years old. He is the most prominent male elephant at the Kataragama complex in Sri Lanka, which houses Hindu and Buddhist temples and a mosque. Wasana was captured from the wild and handed over to the temple at age five or six, has led the Kandy Esala Perahera, the Buddhist annual procession called the Festival of the Tooth, on several occasions. The Festival of the Tooth features about 100 elephants in ceremonial costumes. Hundreds of drummers, dancers, and singers join the parade, which began when the Buddha’s tooth was brought to Sri Lanka from India in the fourth century A.D. [Source: Srinath Perur, National Geographic, April 13, 2023]

Elephant and Human Problems in Sri Lanka

range of the Sri Lankan elephant

According to the BBC: Conflict between humans and elephants is more intense in Sri Lanka than anywhere else in the world. Clashes are particularly frequent in areas that were abandoned for long periods during the country's lengthy civil war. [Source: Linda Pressly, BBC, May 11, 2017]

Elephants in Sri Lanka frequently enter villages and farms ins search of food because their natural habitats are being destroyed by deforestation related to logging, agriculture and overpopulation. One solution to the problem was a month-long elephant roundup that drove a herd of 130 trouble-making pachyderms 20 kilometers to Yala wildlife sanctuary.

A herd of dozens of wild elephants roams rice fields near the Kahalla-Pallekele nature reserve. Fallow fields ease human-elephant coexistence by allowing elephants to move from one place to another without prompting flare-ups with people. Sri Lanka’s wildlife authority compensates homeowners for damage caused by elephants, but it takes time and payment can be a little less than the cost of repairs.

Some elephants have been badly injured and even lost large chunks of their feet and legs by stepping on mines plant during the Tamil Tiger conflict. Some get injured by falling into illegal mining pits that have been covered. Some elephants are killed by hakka patas, or “jaw bombs” — improvised explosives concealed in edible bait. Hunters and farmers set these weapons to kill smaller animals for food, such as boars, but elephants often become victims, unable to eat and dying slowly of starvation.

Elephant and Human Deaths in Sri Lanka

Despite tough conservation laws and the elephant's association with Buddhism, nearly 250 elephants are killed each year by villagers after accidentally straying onto farmland, while the animals themselves kill about 50 to 70 people each year. [Source: AFP, May 8, 2016; Linda Pressly, BBC, May 11, 2017]

Srinath Perur wrote in National Geographic: Conflicts between people and elephants are common — and sometimes fatal for both. Sumith Ranatunga, 44, was lucky to survive after being knocked off his motorcycle and trampled by an elephant in Galgamuwa in 2022. Still, he bears no ill will toward the animals, saying, “If we could return the forests to the way they were, we would not have this problem. It is we who have taken from the elephants.”

Between 1950 and 2008, at least 4,200 elephants are estimated to have been killed by people in Sri Lanka, according to the country's Department of Wildlife Conservation, a body of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. By one count 131 elephants were killed in 1998, compared to 155 in 1997.

In the 2000s, around 100 people were are killed by elephants in Sri Lanka each year. A compensation of $1,000 is paid by the government to a family if their main income earner is killed by an elephant. This is double what it was in the early 2000s. If a non-breadwinner is killed the amount paid is $750. This is triple what it was in the early 2000s.

From 2020 to 2022, people in Sri Lanka killed more than 1,100 elephants, and nearly 400 people died in elephant encounters. In India, from 2018 to 2020, 300 elephants and 1,400 people died because of human-elephant conflict, a phenomenon that occurs when habitat loss forces both species into close contact, often leading to injuries or death. [Source: Srinath Perur, National Geographic, April 13, 2023

The Day My Child Was Killed by an Elephant

In June 2016, six-year-old Sulojini and her father, Raja Thurai, were returning home from the river in the late afternoon sunshine. Suddenly, an elephant appeared from the bush and attacked. "The elephant lifted us with its trunk and threw us on the ground," Thurai told the BBC. "I lost consciousness, and when I woke up, my daughter was already dead."The incident happened close to the Thurai's village, Paavatkodichchinai in Sri Lanka's Eastern Province, near paddy fields and in an area dotted with fruit bushes. [Source: Linda Pressly, BBC, May 11, 2017]

Linda Pressly of the BBC wrote: Raja Thurai and his family went to live in a refugee camp in 2007. When they returned after the war, which came to an end in 2009, elephants had encroached on their land. Now these huge mammals are a continual, terrifying presence - especially at night, when they roam around the village looking for food in fields and homes. "We chase them away, but they come back again and again. Every night we have to stay awake - last night also, I didn't sleep," Thurai, says. His family's home is one of many in the village that have suffered night attacks. The house, shaded by two large mango trees, still has part of a wall missing — destroyed by an elephant one night just before Sulojini was killed.

"It happened at 02:00," says Indrani, Raja Thurai's wife. "The elephant trumpeted and ran towards the house, hitting the roof and wall." She says Sulojini was so frightened she developed a fever. The couple do not have a picture of the daughter they lost, but they have kept the small, pink flip-flops she was wearing when she died. The government does pay 500,000 rupees ($3,278) to the families of those killed by elephants. But there is no way to compensate a family for the loss of a little girl in pink flip-flops, who never returned home from her afternoon bathe.

Elephant Deterrence in Sri Lanka

Most farmers use fireworks to drive off elephants. Some use muskets or shotguns. Injuries with these weapons are rarely immediately fatal but the wounds and the lead from the shot can cause infections that lead to a slow, painful death.

Srinath Perur wrote in National Geographic: Confrontational methods to deter elephants, such as using firecrackers or guns, are ineffective, and can both harm elephants and make them more aggressive, scientists find. Upul Chataranga, 28, spends many nights a year in a lookout, guarding crops from elephants near Galgamuwa, Sri Lanka. When the animals approach, he begins shouting and lighting firecrackers, but this can make the animals more aggressive. [Source: Srinath Perur, National Geographic, April 13, 2023

The only thing that works, experts say, is the electric fence. The often solar-powered structure for keeping elephants away from villages, gardens, or croplands delivers a gentle jolt to an animal that attempts to cross it. Yet in an arms race of sorts, the elephants are constantly testing their boundaries: using their trunks to investigate electrified wires or pushing trees onto fences and then stepping between the fallen wires.

Another solution is the early-warning system, in which the approach of an elephant sets off a bevy of warnings, from red beacons to text messages to voice calls, to notify locals to get inside until the animals have passed. This system has completely eliminated human deaths from elephant encounters for the past two years in Valparai, a region of tea plantations in southern India.

Hukka Patta

Hukka patta is a primitive gunpowder bomb disguised as a fruity treat. Linda Pressly of the BBC wrote: One blew up in the mouth of an elephant named Leila, fracturing her jaw, and destroying half her tongue. [Source: Linda Pressly, BBC, May 11, 2017]

The BBC reported: Leila is being treated at the Department of Wildlife Conservation's facility near the temple city of Polonnaruwa. "The mortality rate of elephants eating hukka pattas is very high," says Dr Pinidiyage Manoj Akalanka, the vet on duty. "Most of them will die." Death by hukka patta is cruel — unable to eat, the animal starves to death.

In this district alone, they see around 40 cases a year. Leila was injured by bullets too — something Akalanka says is becoming more common as farmers become desperate to defend their crops from marauding animals. But Leila is lucky - she has learnt to eat with half a tongue, and will eventually be released back into the wild.

Effectiveness of Elephant Deterrence in Sri Lanka

After six-year-old Sulojini’s death, her village of Thurai's village, Paavatkodichchinai, Linda Pressly of the BBC wrote: organised an informal neighbourhood watch scheme. Households have access to firecrackers to frighten the elephants away, but experts argue fireworks are not the answer. "Communities get into a kind of arms race," says Dr Pruthu Fernando, a conservationist who has spent much of his professional life trying to mitigate human-elephant-conflict in Sri Lanka. "If an elephant comes and tries to eat the crops, people shout at it. So the elephant is scared and goes away. Then the elephant realises people are only shouting, there's no harm to it. So next time people shout, the elephant still comes and raids." [Source: Linda Pressly, BBC, May 11, 2017]

Villagers work through a series of deterrents: first they throw rocks at the animals, next they begin to light fires. Finally, they use firecrackers. "Some of those go off like a bomb," says Fernando. "But elephants soon realise they are only a lot of noise, so they still come and raid. Ultimately, people end up shooting the elephant. All of these things are confrontational."

Fernando has pioneered the use of electrified fencing, erected at particular times of the year. Elephants are free to roam agricultural land during fallow periods, and farmers only put up the barriers when they plant their crops. "The farmers take down the fence the day they harvest," he says.

Sri Lanka already has 3,500 kilometers of electrified fencing aimed at containing elephants, but much of it is in the wrong place. Historically it has been used to mark boundaries - of private property and national parks. But eventually, elephants destroy it. Fencing has to be close to human activity to be effective, Fernando says. "Fences work. If you maintain them well, elephants learn this is a no-go boundary. They're also non-confrontational, so that leads to the possibility of better co-existence."

Sri Lankans That Live in Harmony with Wild Elephants

Linda Pressly of the BBC wrote: The Rathugala Veddha community close to the Gal Oya National Park in south-eastern Sri Lanka — who trace their ancestry to some of the island's earliest inhabitants — chant, invoking God and the spirits, to protect them when they are in the forest. No-one can remember a time when anyone was injured — let alone killed — by an elephant. [Source: Linda Pressly, BBC, May 11, 2017]

"We can sense when an elephant is close-by - we can feel it," says Poramal Aththo. "We have that power in us." It is possible he is describing the infrasound communication of elephants, and that villagers learned to sense this because they have been living in close proximity to the animals for so long. Poramal Aththo says he could teach other Sri Lankans how to stay safe, but it is an art — not something that can be learned in a day.

Marketing Elephant Dung Paper to Help Elephants in Sri Lanka

Hisashi Ueda, the founder of the Michi Corp., sells paper products — such colorful notepads and letter sets with animal decorations — made from elephant dung. "Don't worry. They don't smell," he told Kyodo News. Ueda runs the business with local partner Thusitha Ranasinghe to sell the fibrous paper products mainly in Japan. [Source: Mai Iida, Kyodo News, February 6, 2008]

Mai Iida of Kyodo News wrote: “A large amount of what elephants eat is left undigested due to their weak digestive systems. The leftover fibers are an ideal material for making paper products, Ueda said. The process is designed not only to profit from elephant waste but also to help humans and the endangered mammals coexist."Elephants and humans used to fight for territory, but the business model of the elephant dung paper helps make their coexistence easier," he said. "By making conditions favorable for elephants, we can get their dung."

The paper project won a World Challenge award in 2006 in a contest organized by BBC World and Newsweek magazine as a grassroots enterprise that "not only makes a profit, but also puts something back into the community." Ueda, a 36-year-old native of Gifu Prefecture, said he came up with the business idea by accident. He had always wanted to run a company but never imagined it would be one like this.

When Ueda visited India on business in the 1990s and took a side trip to Sri Lanka to attend a friend's wedding. He was shocked to see children playing among garbage dumped in the jungle. Ueda started collecting empty plastic bottles in Sri Lanka to sell for recycling. Although the business was not a success, it led Ueda to discover the paper made from elephant waste. He said he thought it was possible to make money from the paper and together with Ranasinghe refurbished a factory in Kegalle, Sri Lanka, to recycle elephant dung.

But he soon faced his first hurdle. Such exports were regarded as breaching the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which controls international trading of endangered species. After a year of negotiations, the paper eventually cleared Japanese customs as authorities determined the products did not pose a danger to the animals' survival. "The CITES is an international rule aimed at protecting endangered species, and the basic idea of our business is also the same. So I was confident from the beginning that the authorities would understand us and let the products into Japan," Ueda said.

The paper is handmade. First, sun-dried elephant dung is boiled for hours to kill bacteria. The remaining fibers are mixed with recycled paper to make the finished products. Ueda said what remains after the boiling are fibers that, instead of being foul smelling, in fact have a pleasant scent like a pasture. "Every product is unique," Ueda said, noting paper varies depending on the elephant's age and health. For instance, products made from the dung of older elephants are slightly rough because the animals have fewer teeth to chew leaves thoroughly.

Ueda's Michi Corp. sells a memo pad for ¥578 and a letter set for ¥693. He said he wants his business to be around for a long time, so he puts priority on improving product quality. "If it is for charity, people may buy our products for the sake of elephants or in a bid to fight poverty, but they may not buy again," he said. "If our products are truly good, they should buy them again and again."

Ueda also sells books printed on elephant dung paper that tell the story of how the paper is made, available in both English and Japanese. His business has started growing recently after a shaky start. The factory, which started with seven workers, now has more than 100."The more we sell, the better for elephants, people and the environment. So we kill two birds with one stone, or even three birds," Ueda said. "Through the business, I've learned that whatever you do, if it is for a good cause, people will support it," he said.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, David Attenborough books, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.

Last updated December 2024