“Eth Athuru Sevana”– an Elephant Transit Home for Orphaned Calves in Sri Lanka

The elephant is the largest terrestrial animal on earth and being a herbivore it requires a large area as habitat and a substantial volume of fodder, over 150 kilograms of green matter per day. They are two species; the African elephant [Loxodonta africana] which is restricted to the African continent and the Asian elephant [Elephas maximus] confined to the South and the South-East Asian regions. They both are top species in the IUCN Red List. The African species being listed under the vulnerable category while the Asian species being classified as an endangered species.  Both conditions based on human activity towards them. The African species being poached for ivory  and the Asian being pushed into extinction as a result of habitat loss.

Sri Lanka is the only island nation in the Indian Ocean with a comparatively large population of elephants in the wild.  The country has been trading elephants with the outside world during historical times. This may have been a conservation strategy then; keeping their numbers at bay. However today the situation is different and is not at all in favour of the elephant.

Conflicts between elephants and a growing human population is a major issue in this island nation. Ever since being a colony of the British the elephant population was almost reduced to extinction. A good number killed for sport, and an even larger number eliminated when large tracts of land were opened for  tea plantation in the central massif.

Today even though the elephant is a protected animal under the Fauna & Flora Protection Act; the elephant is at the receiving end when they encroach farmlands and cultivations in temptation due to loss of habitat. The result being the young calves and the adolescents being abandoned or separated from the herd.

The little herd of orphans numbering over 40

The Government of Sri Lanka established an elephant orphanage in Pinnawela in the year 1975 to care for such abandoned and orphaned elephants and their numbers have grown ever since. Today Pinnawela is home for over 80 captive elephants, and is thought to be largest captive herd in the world.

Caring and feeding such a large number of elephants is but a huge task itself. Alternatively the Government in the year 1995 created the Elephant Transit Home [ETH] in Uda Walawe [Sinhala – Eth Athuru Sevana] with the idea of caring and bringing up baby elephants found abandoned in the wild until they could be released back to the wild devoid of bringing up them in captivity.

Feeding time at 9' O clock

The Elephant Transit Home in Uda Walawe is loved by many and is visited by many to see these calves being given milk as feed four times a day; at 9 am, 12 noon, 3 pm and 6 pm. It is only during these times that the general public  get a chance to see them. The rest of the time they spend in the confines out of the view of people in a  areas adjacent to the reservoir in the thicket. 

Funnel fed for over five years to come

Some keep to their instincts drinking through their trunks

Getting back to the thicket after the feed

 

His radio collar will locate the herd when out of sight

Of them numbering over 40  there are but two elephants that are special and would have to spend their entire life even in adulthood with human assistance. They are Namal and Hercules. Both are with severe limb injuries through human cruelty.

Namal is so named for he was found in a critical state in the wilderness of the Namal Oya Reservoir catchment in the Ampara district. His screaming - like trumpeting  went on for over two days while being trapped in a snare and was rescued by fishermen on the third day from within the wilderness and ended up at the ETH. Thanks to the attention of the  Department of Wild-life Conservation and the veterinary care of the Faculty of Veterinary Science of the Peradeniya University Namal had his left hind leg partly amputated and is now wearing a prosthesis turned out by local expertise.

Namal is not allowed with the rest though he follows them to the gate

Namal seems quite comfortable in this prosthesis which will need modification and replacement as he grows,

Hercules is much younger to Namal and is also a victim of a snare and has is right hind leg dislocated at the knee but manages to get about himself in a very awkward limp. Them both seem to have caught the compassionate eye  of all visitors due to their injuries.  One needs to be more thoughtful as to why these creatures are here needing our compassionate hearts to donate for their well being. It is all because of human greed for the material benefits, poaching them for the little bit of ivory  or encroaching their territory and finding them at fault.

Little Hercules

Limpy... but seems content in the new environment

And as the saying goes …… “Orphanages are the only places where one feels an emptiness and a fullness at the same time.”……. These Elephants too may be feeling the same while forgetting the cruelty that came upon them to the kind care they receive over here.

One day they will be roaming the wilds again and let us all pray that no severity would befall on them again or be snatched from the wild to be chained among the saffron robes?............The latest menace to befall the Sri Lankan Elephant!!!!

Full story of Namal

Spring is over; it’s Summertime

It’s a Saturday morning in the month of July and I'm still in bed at home in Galle; a township deep down in the south of Sri Lanka…listening to the morning melody of the birds in the garden calling me out of bed… they all seem to say; ‘gone are the rains and sunny days are back.’ 

This year the monsoon rains were very much on time unlike last year. 

Yes I know it’s going to be a bright and sunny day as it’s been a long time since my bedroom wall caught the morning rays that stream through the windowpane. I’m still lazy though when I hear a unfamiliar call….not heard before in our garden and I’m sprung out of bed into the garden looking for my new feathered friend. My guess was right it was the Black-headed Cuckoo Shrike calling high up in the mango tree [Mangifera Indica]… it was a male bird whistling a high pitched, wheep-wheep-wheep while hopping about in the brightly lit canopy

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Black-headed Cuckoo Shrike

A riot of yellow - Ehela in bloom

Happy and content with the new found friend I wonder about in the garden. It’s high activity all around. The parched and dry weather in March-April, that wilted my three Ehela trees [Cassia fistula] forcing them to drop every leaf and bloom out into a riot of yellow is now a deep green. The monsoon rains that followed have triggered off new life into them and are now adorned in new foliage. The Black–hooded Orioles are busy in them staining their black hoods in odd angles looking for grub. The Ehela trees are ready again to host the larvae of the Lemon Emigrant, and the Common Grass Yellow, the two butterflies that prefer the Ehela to lay their eggs. Very soon the fresh foliage will be chewed up by the larvae and the Orioles and the Bul-buls with the Magpie Robins and the Tailor Birds will be feasting on the fattened larvae before they go into pupa. 

A deep green

Black-hooded Oriole

There is more activity in the shades among the Anthurium’s I see. Approaching them stealthily I'm almost in touching distance with three fledglings hopping about in the sand calling out to the parents who keep feeding them constantly. My wife Hemamala joins me and inquires as to what they are. “They are Magpie Robin chicks” I say to her disbelief. Yes the chicks have mottled beast feathers that fade away in adulthood. The Magpie Robins have had a successful brood this season with three chicks surviving; thanks we do not have a feline pet with us now.”

Exploring the surround

Magpie Robin chicks with mottled breasts

Earlier on inside the weep-holes in the stone wall opposite our bathroom fanlight, nested the White-breasted Kingfishers. They too were successful this year as the rat snake that inspects these cavities for cleanliness was a late comer this year. I now see four Kingfishers flying about in the garden. 

The bathroom fanlight a hideout for photography

This is the cycle of nature that keeps going year round in this little green patch that we maintain around the house in Galle; a 14 perch housing block. What a friendly atmosphere and I get the feeling that all these feathered friends take time off to thank us every summer for helping them keep their progeny alive year round.

Black- rumped Flameback

Just as I was about to go into the house, I hear him thanking me in his own special way. Yes the Black-rumped Flameback is on the mango now and is drumming away for me, trur…rrrrrrrrrrrrrr 

Drumming away happily

Very soon in two months’ time there would be other friends coming over. The Brown Flycatcher, Brown Shrike and the Indian Paradise Flycatcher are regular migrant visitors to our garden. They have an annual reservation in the Mango the Biling [Arerrhoa bilimbi] and the Kathuru-murunga trees. [Sesbenia grandiflora] 

Indian Paradise Fly-catcher

But this year I'm reluctant to provide all of them with a regular service that I continued all year-round before. Our birdbath will only be filled again once the local authorities have completed their inspections on mosquito breeding sites; a precautionary procedure to arrest the spread of dengue.