Our Elephants on the road to extinction?
During the time of the ancient kings of Sri Lanka the elephants were regarded as Royal property and all captures of elephants were only on the orders of the king. The harming and killing of elephants was considered a crime deserving serious punishment. Captain Robert Knox, who was a prisoner of King Rajasinghe from 1660 to 1679, makes these comments in his book ' Historical Relation of Ceylon' written in 1696 as well as stated in the 'Diary of John D' Oyly.'
The Portuguese and the Dutch captured elephants and sold them to increase their revenue. Many of the sold elephants were exported mainly to India. Kraal capturing was introduced by the Portuguese from India and was continued by the Dutch. Captures were done in the areas they controlled as well as areas under the king, who granted permission for captures of restricted numbers but frequently the captures exceeded the permitted numbers.
After the British captured the island in 1815, they embarked on a massive carnage of elephants through the whole country, descriptions of which appear in volume two of the book ' Ceylon' written in 1859 by Sir. Emerson Tennent, who was the British Colonial Secretary resident in Ceylon from 1845 to 1850. The result of this massacre was that, by 1900, there were only about 2000 elephants in the Island and only a few left in the wet zone hill country as stated in the book ' Sport in the low country of Ceylon' written in 1901 by Colonel Alfred Clark, who was the Commissioner of Forests of the British Colonial Government in Ceylon, in the last few decades of the 19th century. According to recent estimates and surveys by various authorities and conservationists the number of elephants in the island at present would be about 2000 to 3000 and to state that the current elephant population to be about 7500 is incorrect to the extreme.
This small population of elephants serves as a magnet to attract hundreds of thousands of tourists annually, who bring in valuable foreign exchange to our country. Undoubtedly, Sri Lanka is the best destination in the whole of Asia to see elephants in their natural surroundings. The gate receipts of the National parks of Minneriya, Kaudulla and Giritale is evidence of the immense tourist potential of our elephants.
However, it is matter of regret that every few days, an elephant is killed in some part of the country. Due to the difficulties experienced in obtaining statistics of elephant casualties, the writer of this article has collected some statistics about accidents and violence to elephants and deaths in 2016 from the news telecasts of one national television channel and the following is the summary for the Polonnaruwa District, which is among the districts where casualties are highest.
| Nature of Accident or Violence perpetrated on elephants. | Number reported as affected | Number reported dead. |
| 1. Shooting | 09 | 03 |
| 2. Van, Truck and Bus collisions | 04 | 02 |
| 3. Train Collisions | 05 | 05 |
| 4. Electricutions from the abuse of 230 volt domestic supply. | 03 | 03 |
| 5. Hakka Patas blasts in the mouth | 01 | 01 |
| 6. Nooses | 01 | 01 |
| 7. Fishing Nets | 01 | 01 |
| 8. Falling into deep " Agro Wells" | 04 | 00 |
| Totals | 28 | 16 |
These statistics confirm that the attitudes of harassment, cruelty, abuse and slaughter of the British Colonial Government still exist among the Sri Lankan population. They also point out that the measures to control the shooting of elephants, electrocutions, 'Hakka patas' use and noosing are inadequate and ineffective, the various motor and train accidents to elephants indicate the high level of carelessness of motor vehicle and train drivers and that the excavation of 'Agro wells' must have the permission of the Wild Life Department and must not be dug haphazardly on paths and routes used by elephants.
Apart from the income the elephants earn from tourism for the country at present, they have also from ancient times acted to protect our island and our cultural heritage. It is believed that during the British Colonial period a foreign vandal while aiming to shoot at one of the Buddha statues at the Polonnaruwa Gal Viharaya, was killed by a wild elephant which suddenly emerged from the forest behind him and this saved the Buddha statue from being destroyed.
Further, the Somawathy chaitya, where a most sacred Tooth Relic of Lord Buddha is enshrined, is recorded to have been constructed at about 150 BC. Since the end of the Polonnaruwa period which is about 1214 AD, the chaitya and its environs were enveloped in jungle. Since then, for seven long centuries , generations and generations of wild elephants which lived in the vicinity of the chaitya, protected it from treasure hunters and vandals. Venerable Sirimalwatte Sri Piyaratna nayake thero, rediscovered the chaitya accidentally one night in 1947, as he and his party, who had lost their way, were stumbling along in the wilderness of the Somawathy jungles, Many wild elephants still visit the chaitya at night and pay homage. Some of the elephants killed in the Polonnaruwa district belong to these herds.
Third, the other sacred tooth relic of Lord Buddha which now reposes at the Sri Dalada Maligawa, (Temple of the sacred Tooth Relic) Kandy, has always been entrusted to the custody of elephants, when it is subject to a public exposition annually by a grand pageant ever since it was received by King Kithsiri Mewan around 302AD, from King Subaseeva of the ancient kingdom of Kalinga in India. Former Kings have at all times trusted the elephants more than anyone else for affording protection to the most sacred relics of Lord Buddha.
All these tuskers and elephants have been born to wild elephants of our jungles. For example, the tusker " Rajah" which served as the bearer of the most sacred Tooth Relic of Lord Buddha at the annual procession at Kandy for a long time and died in 1988, was captured in the jungles of Valachenai, which borders the Polonnaruwa district, in 1925, on permit no. 1318 by one, Ummaru Lebbe of Eravur, when it was about an year old. When all such important facts are considered, it is obvious that no one has any right to kill elephants in this country.
Sir, Emerson Tenent in his description of the masssacre of elephants during the British colonial period, states that, during the administration of some of the earlier British Governors in Ceylon, 170 and 200 elephants were captured in the kraals of the Southern province but once the Governments authorities took out the number they wanted, they shot and killed the balance, that between 1845 and 1848 in the Northern province 3500 elephants were killed, that between 1851 and 1856 in the Southern province 2000 elephants were killed, that there was a reward of a few shillings for every elephant killed and that the "Caffres" soldiers of the Pioneer Corps stationed in the Kandyan province ate the hearts of elephants saying that, it was their custom in Africa. Further, when discussing the reactions of elephants after receiving gunshots, he mentions that captain Dawson, the engineer had shot an elephant at Hanwella, on the banks of the Kelani river. The individual slayings of elephants as given by Tennent is that one major Rogers had killed "Upwards of 1400", that captain Galaway had the "Credit of slaying more than half that number", that major Skinner (then the commissioner of roads) "almost as many" as captain Galaway and that "other sportsmen had killed considerable but lesser numbers than Galaway and Skinner". He also gives a detailed description of a Kraal held in 1847, 15 miles off Kurunegala, to capture elephants for the Civil Engineer's Department. Three herds each with 40 to 50 elephants apiece were river into the Kraal, that the noosing of elephant inside the Kraal were done by people of the lowest strata of the society, that of the 10 tame elephants used to monitor, 2 were from the adjoining temple, 04 from neighbouring chiefs and the balance, belonged to the department. He also mentions of the horror of seeing the separation of infant calves from their mothers and that he took custody of one such orphaned 10 month old infant calf to be brought up by him. The picture of a wood engraving in the frontispiece of volume two is perhaps a recollection of this incident. In the long chapter he had devoted to elephant in volume II, he states that "the elephant is a harmless and peaceful animal" and gives the statistics of the numbers of people killed by animals between 1849 and 1855 as follows; By Elephants 16, Buffaloes 15, Crocodiles 06, Boars 02, Bears 01, Serpents 68.
Regarding the distribution of elephants in the wetzone, Tennert states that Major Skinner had found spoor of elephants on top of Adam's Peak in 1840. Colonel Clark has stated in his book (1901) that from 1831, the government offered rewards for the killing of elephants and "for a good many years" hundreds of elephants were killed annually and " their tails and trunk tips were taken to the kachcheris" for rewards and that great numbers were killed by "European sportsmen." Clark also state that in 1837, a " party of 4 guns" killed 104 elephants in 3 days. In his statistic of trophies, he mentions of one F.Farr who had killed a tasker in 'Bopaththalawa Pathana" with tusks of lengths 55 and 53 inches and of girth 11 inches. (Bopaththalawa is in the wetzone near Horton plaince" where the Farr inn is locate. Clark goes at length to explain that all solitary bulls, which are ordinarily non offensive, are not 'rogues' and that the misconception that solitary bulls are rogues had resulted in the killing of many innocent elephants, because the Government Gazettes, offering rewards for the destruction of "proclaimed rogues" do not give the size, sex or marks of such proclaimed rogues. His statistics give the export of elephants from 1863 to 1881 as 2190 to various zoological gardens of the west and that the "Pannikans" (Moors of the East coast who catch elephants) cause 2 deaths for each elephant caught, which amounted to an average of 124 deaths annually. He also quotes that a total of 13310 leopards were killed during a period of 27 years at an average of 492 annually since the introduction of the payment of rewards for the killing of leopards which commenced in 1872. (Colonel Clark had 25 years of service in the Forest Department from 1875 to 1900).
Harry Storey in his book 'Hunting and shooting in Ceylon (1907)' mentions that Sir Samuel Baker had stated that a Government Agent of Kurunegala district had killed 09 elephants in one morning.
Sir William Henry Gregory, Governor or Ceylon (1872-77) has mentioned in his Autobiography and Biography (1894) that the prince of Wales, who later became King Edward the viith , visited Ceylon on 1st December 1875 and was engaged in an 'elephant shoot' at Ruwanwella on the 5th December, shot 2 elephants of which one died and the prince himself cut the tail of the second thinking it dead but, since then, it got up and bolted into the jungle.
Major Forbes in his book 'Eleven years in Ceylon' (1840), praises Sir Robert William Horton, Governor 1831 - 37, for the permission and even the encouragement given by him for the destruction of elephants, stating "their rapid decrease in numbers since then is undoubtedly one of the greatest causes of the extraordinary prosperity now enjoyed by many districts, where prior to that period, great loss of human life and diminished cultivation were occasioned by these comparatively useless animals".
Coffee was introduce as a plantation crop in 1825, during the governorship of Sir Edward Barnes. (from 1824 to 1831). It is deplorable that the politicians of today, never even utter a single word for the protection of the small population of elephants, who are the descendants from the 2000 elephants at the commencement of the 20th century, which only had the good fortune to escape the killing sprees of the 19th centuary British Colonial Administration.
It is now the time to recall what the Father of the Independence movement of India, Mahatma Gandhi said " The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated" He was obviously referring to the role of governments of countries and their duty to protect both wildlife and all domesticated animals.
In March 2003, in Chattisgahr of Eastern India, 18 elephants died when the Indian Wild Life Department attempted to drive as well as capture wild elephants in the area. Though the Wild Life Department Authorities attempted to sweep the matter under the carpet when the crimes leaked out, there were gigantic public protests throught India and the government was compelled within 24 hours to repeal and revoke the laws and procedures for the capture of wild elephants and elephant drives in the country.
It is a great calamity which has shocked even the gods that we pray to that in our country, elephants are still subject to gruesome killings in spite of the Buddhist values of Compassion and Kindness which also extended and encompassed our relationship with the animal kingdom ever since King Devanampiyathissa, (307 to 267 BC) , out hunting deer at Mihintale, met Arahat Mahinda, the Buddhist missionary, sent by Emperor Asoka of India, to convey the teachings of Lord Buddha to the King and the inhabitants of Sri Lanka.
It must not be forgotten that, from time immemorial the elephant, for all its noble qualities, has been considered as Lord Ganapathy in the Hindu religion. They possess no discriminations against each other, never fight amongst themselves for food, water or territory, their strength, endurance, patience, memory and intelligence are phenomenal, altruistic and disciplined in their social organization and are show pieces of manners. Lord Ganapathy is still worshipped as Pillaiyar in the predominantly Hindu Northern Province. The elephant is also figured as the eternal and loyal companion of God Saman who is worshipped as the protector of the forests of the wet zone hill country which in the topmost catchment area of all our major rivers.
Major Thomas Willian Rogers is mentioned as one of the most terrible serial killers of elephants in the 19th century British colonial Ceylon. Tenant (1859) has stated that Rogers has killed upwards of 1400 elephants while Clark (1901) has stated that Rogers has killed over 1300 elephants and is said to have "purchased his steps in the Ceylon Rifle Regiment" by the sale of tusks of the tuskers he had shot. Major Thomas Skinner, a commissioner of Roads of the 19th Century Colonial Ceylon, states in ' Fifty Years in Ceylon' (1891) that Rogers was struck dead by lightning on 8th June 1845, at Haputale Pass. The St. Marks Anglican church at Badulla, constructed in 1845 in his memory, has a memorial tablet stating that Thomas William Rogers, a Major in the Ceylon Rifle Regiment, the Assistant Government Agent, Badulla and the District Judge of Badulla, was killed by lightning on 7th June 1845 at Haputale, aged 41.k
Information gathered from various sources indicate that Rogers at the age of 20 arrived in Trincomalee in 1824, was a second lieutenant in the Ceylon Rifle Regiment, was posted to Alupotha, Uva Province as military commandant, from where he commenced killing elephants.
It is believed that on 7th June 1845, he had come to Haputale to shoot a magnificient tusker and among the retinue was Mrs. Buller, the wife of the Government Agent, Badulla. At Haputale, they had been interrupted by a sudden shower of rain, causing them to retire to the wattle and daub rest house. While stepping out to the porch as the rain was tailing off, lightning had stuck him dead. His remains were buried at the ' colonial cemetry ', Nuwara Eliya with a 9 foot long, 5 foot wide and 10 inch thick granite tombstone covering his grave, Before long, though there were other graves in the cemetery, his was frequently struck by lightning, causing the tombstone to be crisscrossed over its surface.
Obviously, some powerful mystic forces were at work to both destroy him and his grave. The Rogers episode somehow followed exactly, an often uttered, Sri Lankan curse against despicable criminals that they as well as their graves should be struck by lightning. It is believed by the Buddhists in Sri Lanka, that Lord Buddha preached a sermon from atop the pinnacle of the Sri Pada mountain to both celestial beings and the inhabitants of Sri Lanka and Sri Pada was in the center of the hill country wet zone and home to tens thousands of elephants in the early decades of the 19th century.
The death of Major Rogers and the lightning strikes on his grave at Nuwara Eliya generated great interest and discussion in social circles, local and abroad, so much so, that the ' Victorian Book of the Dead' by Chris Woodgate, records a tale that Rogers was personally intimated by a Buddhist priest that he would be struck by lightning when attempting his next kill, his abstinence from shooting for six months following this prophecy, and finally being lured to shoot a majestic tusker on that fateful day of 07th June, 1845.
The genocide perpetrated on the elephants during the British Colonial Administration of the 19th century is perhaps the greatest tragedy Sri Lanka has experienced in its entire history. Only Sir Emerson Tennent and Colonel Alfred Clark seemed to have conducted some sort of campaign against this genocide. The population of elephants, perhaps even 50,000 in 1815, had declined to a mere 2000 by the end of the 19th century. The genocide was propelled by the regimentation of the British colonial government's entire administration towards the massacre of elephants as well as the encouragement given to the island's population to kill elephants, by the payment of rewards to the killers. British colonialism established in 1815 in Ceylon, completed the process started by the earlier Portugese and Dutch Colonialists in the maritime provinces of the island, of degrading the elephants in the eyes of the people, by pulling down the elephants from their lofty pedestals of dignity and awe of the Sinhalese and from the Alters of religious worship of the Hindus to the basest level of street dogs, vermin, pests and rogues, shunned, hated, killed and misunderstood by society. Perhaps, the two devastating world wars that the British experienced in the 20th century was the penance the gods made Britain pay for creating hell to the innocent elephants and other wild animals of Sri Lanka in the 19th century.
The situation for the elephants have not improved much since the end of the British colonial rule in 1948. The dry zone which was the only habitat available for elephants after the British cleared the wet zone, was opened for the settlement of people under various development schemes, each of which caused tens of thousands of hectares of elephant habitat to be lost. The colonization schemes, commenced in 1933 and spread to all parts of the dry zone. They were followed by the mega projects of the Galoya, Walawe and the Mahaweli. The grabbing of elephant habitats proceeded legally with the blessings of the governments. Smaller projects such as the Maththala Air Port, Suriyawewwa cricket grounds, Cashew plantations at Kondachchi and Mankerny (Eastern Province), sugar projects at Kantalai, Hingurana, Sewanagala and Pelwatte etc... and the illegal encroachments by people all over the dry zone have pushed the elephants on the path to extinction. The fate of the elephants getting displaced as a result of their habitats being cleared for ' Development' was never considered when the projects commenced. Whatever National Parks were declared was after the lapse of several years since the commencement of the projects, by which time, each of these projects had caused hundreds of elephants to be killed by farmers. Perhaps the gods are once again, as they did to Rogers in 1845 and to the British in the 20th century, punishing the people of this country, irrespective of their positions and status, in many many ways for the continuing atrocities against the elephants.
Yasantha De Silva,
B.Sc. Agriculture (Peradeniya.)
No comments:
Post a Comment