Dr. T S U de Zylva - Ornithologist, Conservationist and Bird Photographer par Excellence.

Dr. T S U de Zylva…passed away at the ripe old age of 94 years, on 13^th September 2020.  He was ‘Upen’ to his dear companions and Dr. Upendra to his clientele of Kurunegala who looked to him for their ailments.  

He was a well-known medical practitioner in Kurunegala with a long-established history, running his own private practice after a brief stint in the Government Health Service. However he was more renowned and celebrated as the first-ever wildlife photographer specializing in bird photography who introduced our birdlife to the world in the mid-19^th century through his numerous pictorial publications.   

Dr. Thosatiratne Sri Upendra de Zylva (TSU) was born in 1927. He had his early education at Maliyadeva College Kurunegala, and moved to Royal College, Colombo for his high school education. When WW II broke out the Royal College premises was taken over by the RAF and young TSU had to move into Kandy with his parents and was enrolled at the Dharmaraja College. With the war ending, he was back in Colombo but this time not in Royal College but as a student of Ananda College from where he passed his Matriculation Examination followed by the University Entrance Examination facilitating his entry to the Medical Faculty.

He had a passion for photography and biology but there were times when photography did override the other. Young TSU when in the Medical College did take a photo of an operation being performed by legendary Surgeon Dr. P R Anthonis then as a demonstration to the medicos. Fearful of the incident the young medico handed the photograph to Dr. Anthonis; to his astonishment, he was commended and gifted Rs 300/= for the print. That was a fortune worth 100 film rolls for him then.

It was his mother who bought him his first camera a Zeiss Contax when on a holiday in India and his father also a practicing doctor in Kurunegala, gifted him a 16mm Bolex Cine camera the day he passed out as a qualified doctor.

His first appointment was to the Chilaw hospital as the first House Officer. This was a time when there was only a District Medical Officer and a District Medical Assistant before him. It was while in Chilaw that he befriends Herschel Pandithasekera, a well-known personality in the bird circles who had a passion for Snipe shooting. It was he who encouraged him into birdwatching and bird photography.

After a brief stint in the Health Services, his father calls him to join the family practice assisted by his brother-in-law, Dr. Ananda de Silva. This brings him back to Kurunegala and life got into a routine and his brother-in-law gave him the liberty of taking every other weekend off for his photography and he would coverup for him,

Picture courtesy - M.A. Pushpa Kumara Sunday Times

Known as the “ge aran ena mahaththaya” meaning the gentleman who comes with the house for he carried his bird hides done of canvas and jute and ventured into the remotest countryside to photo record nesting behavior of rare birds. It would take hours for him to install the hides elevating him to be in line with the bird and would sit for days inside them to get his prize photo. The only record of the very rare Broad-billed Roller [Dollar Bird] nesting has still not been recorded since his record 40 years ago. It was not the digital era then and color film processing was not heard of in the country. All his exposures were on positive color slides that were very costly and were processed outside the country.

Dr. T S U de Zylva ventured to his task of bird photography with limited resources and equipment depended on his Hasselblad camera. He had done much photo recording of bird behavior then when compared to what is taking place now in the most viral way. However, it must be noted that he discontinued his habit of photographing the nesting behavior of birds when it was to be reprehended in line with the general practice of ethical birdwatching that was to be introduced later. This being for restriction of man’s intervention with breeding birds and of divulging the habitats of critically endangered and rare birds.

His love for the Hasselblad camera and the versatility of its usage in the field of bird photography brings him closer to Dr. Victor Hasselblad himself [inventor of the Hasselblad camera] and together they venture into wildlife conservation and numerous other publications. As a gesture to his commitment, TSU receives a grant worth US$ 30,000 from Dr. Victor Hasselblad to be used on any worthy wildlife undertaking.

He is credited with the earliest publication of the photographic guide to the BIRDS OF SRI LANKA which displays much of his own photographs. This followed with a wonderful collection of coffee table publications……   Wings in the Wetlands: A Photographic Portfolio,... Sri Lanka Jungle Profiles (Animals of the SAARC Region),... Sinharaja: Portrait of a Rainforest,... Sri Lanka Nature Pictorial,... Cradles on the Sand: In a Bygone Era,... Images of Birds: A Random Selection of the Birds of Sri Lanka.

He was an active member of the two prominent bird and wildlife organizations in the 50- 60 era the Ceylon Bird Club (CBC) and the Wildlife & Nature Protection Society (WNPS).  He represented many committees in the WNPS and was elected its President in the years 1982-1983.

Apart from his contribution to birds and photography, his greatest gift to wildlife was in the conservation of sea turtles. He is the pioneer in this venture. He with the late Dr. Siri Wickremesinghe, a close friend with similar interests in wildlife and nature decided on utilizing some monies from the Hasselblad grant for the conservation of sea turtles. They had learned of Similius Abrew of Kosgoda who had a love for turtles and was in the habit of setting them free off ghost nets drifting in the sea.

They meet Similius and discuss their plan to grant a sum of money to build a hatchery and then pay poachers and fishermen more for their eggs than they would be getting selling them to eateries and markets. This was way back in 1978 when all the seven species of sea turtles were on the endangered list and five of them were frequenting the Kosgoda beach to lay their eggs. Similius was not that confident of the venture at the beginning but offered his beachfront property in Nape, Kosgoda to layout the hatchery that was to be financed by TSU.  

Thus started the 1^st ever sea turtle conservation project in this country. Initially, it was the school children that came over to Nape to study these turtles and Similius started to collect a small gate fee for maintenance expenses until tourism caught up where he could relieve TSU from the burden of funding the hatchery to meet its overheads.

Today none of them are living but the Kosgoda Sea Turtle Hatchery runs generating its revenue to run on its own managed by Similius’ son Chandrasiri Abrew and grandson.

This is the life story of a gentleman who loved this country, its weather the fauna, and the flora but went very much unheard in the recent past. He took time off from everything just to be part of the forest and nature whenever time permitted. All this happen at a time when photography was not an affordable hobby and one had to wait for weeks to know if your picture was a success or not unlike today’s digitized photography. TSU was a sought after name when it came to the yearend greeting cards then in the ’60s. The WNPS greeting cards were a must and most often they were from prints of TSU’s birds and other wildlife. We schoolboys then were in the habit of collecting these cards. To me, it was him that instigated the love for birds and nature apart from the teachers at school, S Thomas’ College Gurutalawa where birdwatching was practiced as an extracurricular activity. 

I have only met him in person just once when he was entrusted with the task of selecting the three best photographs at the very first bird photography contest conducted by FOGSL. He was generous enough to provide a color slide of a Blue Magpie in Sinharaja for the Blue Magpie Conservation poster for FOGSL. 

udithawijesena@gmail.com

‘Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child’ – Corporal Punishment?

Spare the rod and spoil the child is a famous adage appearing in the Bible and made its way into practically every proverb collection. It initially alluded to beating and is cited often but does not necessarily mean for beating in today's usage.

We who went to school before the 1980s were never spared for mischief and misconduct. Mischief and misconduct took place intentionally at times but most often one got into trouble inadvertently; feeling tolerable and be ensured to go unnoticed when in a joyful gathering. However, things never turned in support of one's self and if collective persistence was applied in protecting an individual, the result ended with the whole group being punished. 

Sadly though this is not the case today with the international human rights declarations on child rights; corporal punishment is considered as torture and legal conventions work the other way round. Most children today are overprotected and are devoid of any adventurism and has turned out to be dull fudgers in comparison to us then at school.  

S Thomas College Gurutalawa located in a 35-acre farmland was a heaven to the boarding schooler. The plentiful orchard with the seedless Golden Mandarins the rare Palestine Naval Oranges and the Japanese Persimmons was the Garden of Eden. There wasn’t any fruit named as forbidden, yet every fruit in it was marked taboo to us cohorts of Adam. A no go zone declared out of bounds. There was no Eve, for it was a boy’s school and no serpent cos the temperate climate did not favor them. However there was an orchard keeper called Goluwa, a dumb man says, Mr. Clifford Ratwatte a pioneering student, reminiscing his memories of school days. These alien exotic fruits were a temptation to defy and if seen by the Goluwa and reported to the headmaster, one ended up getting six lashes on his buttocks. This is about the earliest record of the corporal punishment conducted in this institution, established in the year 1942.

The orchard did exist even during our time in the 1960s but there was no Goluwa or any other keeper to watch our movements but the orchard was still ‘out of bounds’ and violators were the recipients of the corporal punishment.

Reprimanding and punishing mischief-makers did instill fear for misbehavior in others and thereby bring discipline and order in a school. However, there were times when things went out of hand and disciplining required spanking large groups of students. Often known as public canning where otherwise disciplining was done covertly.

I recall two such incidents during the late 60 s which today turnout to be hilarious but sure did instill fear in us then.

A rainy day in 1968. 

There was an understanding that on a rainy day evening prep from 6:40 PM to 7:30 PM would be held in the dining hall accounting for boys falling sick the following day by getting drenched in the cold weather going to the classrooms and back. Mr. Tuline Ratnam the duty master had professed for hall prep. Every activity in the school was on a time schedule communicated by Bell Simon who rang the bell by default.  However, the bell was only the communicator to start a new activity but ceasing the current activity happened only on the consent of the teacher in the class or the duty master assigned for the day.

On this particular day, the dinner bell rang at 7:30 but Mr. Tuline Ratnam the duty master did not consent for the ending of prep for some reason, and everybody remained seated. The senior boys were agitated and some started rubbing their footwear against the rough cement floor annoying Mr. Ratnam. This continued for almost ten minutes, each time Mr. Ratnam strode in one direction the boys to his rear would turn rowdy and when he turned towards them those now behind him would turn unruly. For us juniors, this became an amusement but dared not giggle for fear of being reprimanded.         

During prep time the college campus goes into a total silence until the dinner bell when a huge clatter is heard with the steel chairs pushed back followed by the chatter of the boys. But this day it was strange for the stillness to continue which aroused the concern of the headmaster Mr. Frank Jayasinghe who walked into the dining hall still in his tennis attire. He had been watching what happened from outside the dining hall and there was no necessity for owning up. His office room adjoins the dining hall and a dozen canes came into the hall.  To this day I am stunned of the stamina that Mr. Jayasinghe then in his early 30s possessed caning 56 senior boys four cuts each with twin canes. His longarm tennis swing was amply displayed in an effortless manner stopping only to change a splitting cane.

No grudges or revengeful feelings towards anybody, everyone sat for a quiet dinner under pin-drop silence. That was a classic case were the seniors thought that they could get away pranking as a group without punishment. The whole lot got punished but some would have been really innocent.  

School Assembly 

The second incident was in 1971 and is more hilarious. There were two notable brothers Desmond Miles and Gifford Miles. Desmond was a mild-mannered altar boy while Gifford the younger one was the exact opposite a mischief-maker and a terror in class.  Old Mr. Ganamuththu who took English literature would give us a piece of comprehension to work on and rest awhile in an unsuspecting manner. Gifford would note this and drop his box of mathematical instruments in a metallic clang to startle old Gananamuththu. He would then rush towards Gifford with his foot ruler to the laughter of the rest and smash Gifford’s knuckles with the ruler edge. That was Gifford.

The Headmaster was Mr. E L Perera a different type of headmaster who trusted molding children in a spiritual manner and did conduct small spells of meditation before school to different classes on a weekly routine. However, Wednesday was the general assembly day to the whole school that was held in the dining hall before the first period.

This particular Wednesday  Mr. John Marasinghe the headmaster’s secretary brought in four canes and placed them on the table before the assembly. ELP started with his routine sermons on good manners and meditation and ended with the general announcements. To our curiosity he started all over again in a harangue blasting of being ungrateful to the school of being unbecoming to one's parents, etc. and in the end called Gifford Miles to the stage….. It was a funny scene, ELP a short-statured man in his well creased Tusso coat and trouser looking up at a heavyweight Gifford.... more like  David looking at  Goliath. 

He then delivered to the assembly the reason for summoning Gifford to the stage. There was no need for Gifford to admit or confess to his misconduct for he had autographed his graffiti in the newly color-washed staff room.  Gifford had entered the staffroom after school for reasons better known to him and taken time off to draw a life-sized guitarist in a single line graffiti with charcoal and autographed it, Gifford Miles.

Gifford admitted to his fault and was caned in public at the assembly. Gifford being tall was asked to bend holding the table. Six of the best of ELP’s tennis slams ended on the back of his thighs. His bum was spared cos ELP being a short man was out of reach but Gifford had the branding on his thighs for weeks.

The  Prank that Backfired

There were other times when a prank played on another student would turn out to be a disaster calling for unexpected punishment. Such an incident took place in the Keble dormitory when we planned to play a prank on Ravi Rajendran [Ganja] who is now domiciled in Toronto Canada. Keble had the toilets as an outside block and a single one indoors for night use. Everyone went for a pee before lights-out and Ravi happened to be the last one that day. We had balanced a tin of water and some shoes, hockey sticks, etc. on the main door to fall on Ravi when he walked in. To our surprise before Ravi could walk in, it was the dorm master Mr. Marasinghe who entered being the recipient of the prank.

That day the whole dormitory got caned a single cut each on the bum including poor Ravi and many others who were innocent and never knew anything about it. But mind you that single cut on the bum over a thin pajama trouser still hurts when you think of it.

Of course, that punishment one could say was unjust, and beating the whole dorm was wrong. But today we know, not all punishments are for disciplining but there is a technical background to them as well. That prank played on a fellow colleague turning out on a staff member unintentionally had a hierarchical involvement in the school order.  Today we know that the single-cut we got was of a technical context to silence the incident from further discussion.       

I’m quite sure that none of us were spared from the rod and had undergone this form of corporal punishment at least once and of course, the incorrigibles many times. But we can all be pleased for what we are today and mark them incidents as a pleasant reminiscence of a cordial interaction between a dedicated staff of a great institution.      

Today corporal punishment is an offense leading to litigation. But during our time it was never reflected back from home neither was it discussed at home for things would turn out for the worse calling for further punishment.

COMMUNAL ROOSTING OF CITY BIRDS

Barn Swallows Roosting in Ratnapura Town 

A roost is a place where a bird rests or sleeps. These would generally, be a perch on a tree or even on buildings in the case of urban habitats. Cliffs or rock faces and other habitats are used as roosts by some birds who have special adaptations. Birds roost when humans retire indoors for the night and this avian behavior goes unnoticed. However, birds roosting in urban habitats have been of concern to the urban dweller for it interferes in his nightly movement.

All terrestrial animals and avian creatures are divided into two groups as diurnal and nocturnal species. The diurnal species take refuge in safe locations during the night and the nocturnal species during the day. This could be shown as the need to rest the anatomical functions especially while vision is not quite sufficient to go about in their routine behavior.

In the case of breeding birds, one bird would sit in the nest taking care of the nestlings or the brood while the other would perch close by. The primary objective of this type of roosting behavior would be for safety, from nocturnal predators. This form of parental roosting is to change totally in the non-breeding season. The non-breeding roosts are generally communal or group roosts.

Most urban roosts are communal while they would vary from single species roosting to mixed-species roosting from time to time in the year. Some ornithological research has been done on these communal roosting in urban habitats and potential reasons have been determined. 

The Galle city in the south of Sri Lanka where I live has a few communal roosting sites in the parks and coconut groves close to the city center. Two decades ago these habitats were dominated by the two crow species, both the Large-billed crow and the House crow. The House crow is abundant in the cities and urban habitats. Crows have been in the habit of frequenting urban areas very much for the ample food sources that were freely available when the meat stalls and fish stalls were in open buildings. These stalls became ample larders throughout the day where meat and fish were prepared and waste collected in open dumps. These open garbage dumps were heavens to scavenge on and the urban crow population increased to unmanageable numbers. The parks and the city sidewalks were no longer leisure areas in the evenings when their droppings littered them, demanding the attention of the local authorities. 

Urban House Crow Populations

However, the last decade shows some significant changes in our urban food usage and the management and disposal of urban waste. The once open meat and fish stalls are now indoors. The supermarket concept where meat and fish are pre-dressed and processed for sale in packed units have come to stay. Open waste dumping is prohibited and is an offense. The bio-degradable garbage is either turned into compost on small home units or delivered to the collecting trucks in an organized manner. These changes have affected the freely available fast-food sources and the result being the decline of the city crow numbers. 

However, the decline in the crow population at roosts made way for other birds into these once crow dominated roosts. Today thousands of Common Mynah birds have invaded these once crow dominated city roosts. The exception being the Mynahs not having a ready source of food available in the city neither do they scavenge nor prefer a carnivorous diet.  There needs to be some special reason for this attraction. The Large-billed crow which used to roost together with the House crow now prefers smaller group roosts or pairing away from these common city roosts.  They prefer to roost on the up-graded city electrical cables that are bundled and are thicker than the old single-line cables. The thicker insulated bundle gives a better hold on their talons for a comfortable roost. 

Common Mynah

Research studies of our local urban roosts have not been conducted in a detailed manner to reason out these changes. However, there are some common reasons derived from research done in other countries that could be applied to local conditions as well.   

Night temperatures inside cities are 5 - 15 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the surrounding areas, and in a mass gathering of birds touching each other, the temperatures may be favorable to commence the activity fairly early in the morning.  Most roosting avian species require warmth from the morning sun for effective blood circulation, to become active. Birds are thought not to see well in the dark, so sleeping in the city gives the advantage of being able to see a nightly predator, and also the ability to see where to flee safely as the city is illuminated below the roost. Most street lighting is downlit and the area above them is in the dark. 

The Galle ramparts is an ideal location to watch the gathering of House Crow and the Common Mynah flying into the trees in the park opposite the railway station when dusk falls. The chatter of the Mynah and the cawing of the Crows continue with the birds flying from tree to tree looking for the ideal perch possibly sitting on a hierarchical order until it becomes the darkest and to a total quietness.

My presumption is that these crows and mynahs in the city roosts are the younger, immature birds unlike those who have mated for life and roost in pairs in localized roosts. These communal roosts are also a social function where birds challenge each other, find potential mates and communicate with each other their individual or joint experiences.

It is noted that habitat loss requires greater time for foraging and locating food. Roosting together gives an advantage in locating food, as most birds would know where to go at daybreak and the others could follow. The crows leave very early and the Mynahs are late to leave frequenting the cricket ground to pick the grub in the grasses before they fly away to distant feeding grounds.   

Rose-ringed Parakeet

Away from the Galle Town, towards Matara in Katugoda is another communal roost that of the Rose-ringed Parakeet. This again is unique with the coconut trees laden with hundreds of parakeets at sunset. They would stay on the palm fronds until darkness falls to move to the underside of the frond. They have a very peculiar way of roosting in the underside of the palm frond hanging with their feet apart locked in the leaves; some hanging upside down and some keeping upright by holding onto another leaf by the beak. This strange acrobatic roosting method could be explained as a precautionary adaptation to predation from nocturnal owls etc. When hanging from under the palm frond it's completely hidden needing special predatory adaptation.

This roost has now shifted inland with the development of the new Galle Port access roadway connecting to the Southern Highway cutting through this area. The Rose-ringed parakeet being monogamous, the numbers in these communal roosts could also be noted as non-breeding young birds. The more prosperous eligible ones will wait for the lifetime pairing when they would be leaving this community to bring up their young in tree-hole abodes.

There are other special communal roosts in many urban locations in the country. Of them, the millions of barn swallow that roost in the electrical and telegraph wires in the Ratnapura and Pelmadulla towns during the migratory season is unique.

 

MOST UNUSUAL BIRD BEHAVIOR.... 2011

This happened in April 2011.  In Denawaka; a village off Malwala on the Ratnapura Palabaddala Road to Adams Peak. I was assigned to the construction of a mini-hydro project across Denawaka Ganga the main tributary of Kalu Ganga.  My living quarters were beside the road from Malwala to Balangoda via Rassagala.

It had a small garden that the owners living in the lower ground area maintained and was just opposite my window in the upper-ground area.

Black-naped Monarch and Indian Paradise Flycatcher in their nests -Pic Curtsy Wikipedia  

I noticed a pair of Black-naped Monarchs busy, nest building opposite my window on a liana scaling skywards in this garden patch in early April 2011. Every morning before going to work, I noted the progress of the nest and was a bit nervous to part with the Monarchs when soon it will be time to go home for the Sinhala /Tamil New Year that came in the second week of April.  

Back to work after the holidays, I noticed the two eggs laid in the nest and the birds were taking turns incubating them. The climate during this time in the Peak Wilderness was not at all favorable for brooding birds but they did brave the thunder and rain that was to fall on the last two days of the month

On 28th April 2011, I was away in Colombo at a workshop. I inspected the Monarch nest before leaving and she was seen trucked up neatly in the nest. It was 6:00 am when I left for Colombo.

I was back in Ratnapura late in the night and was too tired to check on the nest. But the following morning (29th April 2011) I saw the nest abandoned. I was tilting to aside with the two eggs about to fall out. My immediate reaction was to inquire about the nest from the cook boy and caretaker of what came by the nest.

His story was almost unbelievable….During the day he had seen the Indian Paradise Flycatcher (male) that also foraged about in the garden sitting on the Monarch nest. But he had not noted the damage to the nest until then. "Not all persons are crazy about nature and birds I realized."     

The nest with the two eggs had taken a heavy beating from the night rain and was soggy and delicate to be positioned manually without further damage. The Monarchs were now calling out and flying about the nest unable to sit on the tilted cup. Not much that I could do and preferred nature to take precedence.   

On the 29th evening, the nest was found to have detached from the main liana attached to the bush and was hanging from a supporting strand. One egg was still held in it and the other gone missing. I did not find the Indian Paradise Flycatcher. The destruction cannot be by a Palm Squirrel, for it would not keep the other egg in the nest.

I am still trying to figure out the behavior of the Indian Paradise Flycatcher? This bird at this time in the wet zone could be a straggler migrated from India or from the dry zone (there are proven records of a local migration from dry zone to the wet zone of the native species).  It could be the bird in its breeding instincts sat on the nest which is similar in shape to its own, but this was smaller and less sturdy. I did not see any female Indian Paradise Flycatchers about the garden to be a prospective mate for it. It is disappointing to have missed the photograph of the Indian Paradise Flycatcher sitting on the nest though.

Please let me know if you have observed such unusual breeding behavior before.

Today with Google facilities to check back of such behavior it is noted that both the Indian Paradise-flycatcher and the Black-naped Monarch both are noisy birds uttering a common sharp skreek call. It breeds from May to July. Both male and female take part in nest-building, incubation, brooding, and feeding of the young. Three or four eggs are laid in a neat cup nest made with twigs and spider webs on the end of a low branch. This description matches quite like that of the Black-naped Monarch's nest building. There is but a record of an interspecific feeding case noted with paradise flycatcher chicks fed by Oriental white-eyes.

Therefore there seem to be some noteworthy interruptions and interactions related to the Indian Paradise Flycatcher's breeding behavior.

I did forward this observation back then when social media was limited to Emails, to Mr. Jagath Gunawardane and the FOGSL. Both institutions took note of the scenario and conveyed the interest of the observation.

This is also recovery from my old hard drive that crashed with many such recordings,,,,, this I would be of interest to bird enthusiasts. The photographs are not that clear as my better camera was not in Ratnapura then. My intension was to photo record the breeding behavior of the Black-naped Monarch from my window which ended thus with an unsolved mystery.          

Return to Meemure - 2003

Pic Curtsy EnageBang                                                          Lakegala - Meemure

Meemure having come into the limelight after the parliamentary elections in 2001 caused me to return to this old Kandyan village to perceive what progress it made since my last visit 20 years back.

My first visit to Meemure was in 1975, in my university days and then it was another remote location that we adventured during our leisure. Public means of transport to Meemure then, and even now was by bus and one had to alight at Loolwatte on the Kandy Mahiyangane road. This is followed by a trek of almost 20 kilometers by foot for there is no public transport to the village from Loolwatte. However, there are now vans that will take passengers to the village depending on the need and the road conditions for a very generous fee.

The road is being renovated and done up with concrete and other road construction means with a new bridge across the rivulet. The last 7 kilometers is still under construction and is negotiable with difficulty, on the way up when almost every evening is gloomy and drizzly. Our van driver had bundles of hay ready at hand in case the road was slippery on the climb back. The end of the road is at the village center where a giant ‘Mee’ tree sits in the center of the road. The tree had survived the 20 years even with the current road work. Not much has changed, except for a new health center provided with solar-powered electricity and a Divisional Secretariat building that had come up during this period. The other major change was a massive stone plaque at the base of the old ‘Mee’ tree noting the Prime man had been here to inaugurate the road rehabilitation work.

Pic Curtsy Lakdasun                                   The Mee tree -

The unforgettable scenic ‘Lakegala’ the massive rock outcrop depicting a gigantic inclined Sivalingam was in the backdrop of the village. The numerous bird calls from the virgin forests around ‘Lakegala’ was an open invitation for bird watching. The footpath to the forest was the same as then; only it was marked with red painted arrows making it easy for a stranger to find the way into the forest and back. The path snaked up the hill passing the home garden plots demarcated by loose stone walls as seen in Irish farm plots.

About 3 kilometers into the forest even the trees had those red markings. These were different from the arrows but with a letter, E painted on them. On return after a stint of birding, and inquiries made of the markings on the trees. We were told they were the trees to be felled for the proposed electricity supply to Meemure from distant Pallegama about 10 kilometers in Laggala. This would be the shortest distance from the source as the crow flies. 

Meemure should get its share of electricity in this new world, there is no contention. But isn't there other means; without felling down all these giants that have stood there for over 500 years…. Just to light up an isolated landlocked village in the Knuckles range when there are alternative ways to provide electricity to Meemure? There is definitely very high potential in tapping the waterways that flow around Meemure to supply electricity through a mini hydro-power system. There is the never-ending wind energy to be harnessed at the famous Corbets Gap which of course is a longer feeder line without chopping the forest. With so much of alternate energy resources waiting to be harnessed; I’m quite sure if proper exposure of the village is done to the outside world, finding funds would not be that difficult.

However, the dangerous threat that I foresee of the Lakegala forest was quite imminent with the new road coming up. Close by the famous Mee tree at the village center was a giant Mara tree measuring a girth not less than 30 feet, which had been felled and logged into five sections. They were all awaiting a permit to be transported out. This will not be a problem anymore with the new Divisional Secretariat in the village commencing operations soon?

The Elephant in the Pageant

Dalada Perahera of the Temple of the Tooth

The Dalada-Perahera in Kandy Sri Lanka in the month of Esela or July as in the Gregorian calendar is when the animal welfare activists and elephant lovers are actively lobbying for the elephant in chains when a colorful nightly parade is on the streets of Kandy.

An annual Cultural and Religious festival that was patronized by the royalty ever since the tooth relic of the Buddha was brought to the island in the 4^th century during the rule of King Kirthisiri Meghawanna (305-331 AD). History notes that King Meghawanna decreed that the Relic should be taken round the city of Anuradhapura once a year. Accordingly the beginning of the Dalada Pageant.

However, the Esela Perahera had been an annual event outside the Dalada perahera in relation to the Hindu practices in parading idols of deities in the month of Esela coinciding with the South Indian temple calendars. A practice introduced by the Chola and Pandian invaders who established the South Indian Hindu temple culture in the country.

Esela festivities practiced today is a continuation of these traditional venerations in the four Devalas patronized by the Nayakkara genealogy; the last rulers of the Kandyan Kingdom. It was during the reign of Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe the last king in Kandy that Buddhism was revived and revering the Dalada was decreed with state patronage. Therefore history records that it was Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe who combined the Esela festivities of the four Dewala with the Dalada rituals; speculating if this Hindu King belittled the Dewalas by giving prominence to the Dalada or made equal status to the Dalada with that of the Dewalas?   

Traditional Dancers

The Kandyan Convention signed in 1815 and the British taking control of the whole island, it still allowed the continuity of the Esela Perahera noting it to be a Buddhist Festival. The colorful pageant continued with its uniqueness in the whole of South Asia with various performing dancers and drummers and over hundreds of caparisoned elephants also taking part.

Sri Lanka is one of the three island nations where the Asian Elephant breeds in the wild.  The elephant needs a large extent of land to roam, the country traded its elephants for centuries accounting for economic and conservation reasons. However with the British opening the land for tea and coffee plantation they almost destroyed the elephant to extinction resulting in confining it to the dry zone of the country.

Today the fate of the elephant in the wild is pitiful and the human-elephant conflict a major issue resulting in about 50 human deaths and over 150 elephant deaths a year. The world today is different and the trading in wildlife is controlled or banned with international conventions such as CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and the Sri Lankan elephant in an island is losing its limited wild habitat.   

Caparisoned Elephants

As a means of mitigation, various scientific approaches have been introduced, confining them to determined areas by means of electrical fencing, etc. The elephant is an intelligent animal and is clever to negotiate such fences and venture out for crop-raiding and confront gunfire, never to return on most occasions. Losing its habitat makes them wander about for fodder and water colliding with nightly trains that ply almost in darkness.  With no more international trading possible there were attempts to keep the numbers down by donating animals for cultural needs, as in pageants and as goodwill ambassadors to friendly nations. This too has aroused the concern of animal activists the world over. The cruelty in the ‘Crush or Phajaan’ in the splitting of the will of a captive elephant is thought to be the most disheartening ordeal that the captive elephant has to undergo.  However, it is noted that cruel methods practiced in Burma and Thailand even now was not the way it was in dealing with the captured elephant in Sri Lanka. Nevertheless, this practice should not take place under any condition.

The Esela Perahera today is an annual event where almost all the captive elephants in the country are scheduled to take part. In the past, these animals trekked the tarred roads in the scorching heat of the day and the cold nights for months to be on time for the event. But today they are trucked to Kandy in a few hours on purpose-built vehicles. An achievement on the part of animal welfare reducing the cost of walking an elephant for months.

Conducting perahera since the Kandyan Convention in 1815 is a collective responsibility of the Diyawadana Nilame, the chief lay custodian in the Temple of the Tooth and the Basnayake Nilames of the four Devalas. The main issue today is the elephant needing to have fetters to its hind legs, limiting free movement  for almost 2.5hrs. This is due to a few isolated incidents of elephant furies in the past and today’s priorities on safety. Therefore it is a mandatory requirement for a veterinary screening of the animal and to have fetters on its hind legs.

Hind legs in Fetters

If one is to go back to view some of the ancient pageants now available in social media in the 19th century the elephants are free walkers sans any fetters. Therefore the Kandy Esela Perahera today is the main topic of discussion in social media concerning the welfare of the elephant. However, there is lobbying on both sides; some say it is a cultural event and the need for its continuity overlooking the suffering and the supposed animal torture. Others call for an end to the event in total, highlighting the ordeal the elephant undergoes with the continuous drumming and the discomfort of the weight of the garment on the animal, stress due to the illumination from light bulbs in the garment and the naked flames carried on the flanks recalling the past when the streets were dark with no lighting.

However in modern times, this event goes beyond a traditional ritual. The 'Dalada Perahera' is one of the most lucrative festivals in the temple today. A travelers festival that generates a lot of income to the government being a tourist attraction. Some tourists have even disapproved the event saying; with no offense to any religious aspect, the festival is found to be cruel and primitive to say the least, where a seat to watch the pageant is sold at $70 USD and it seemed like this whole charade was just another way to make money off the tourists.

1966 no fretters free movement

This is certainly true and the Temple of the Tooth and the Government are both in a different rationale with regard to the traditional Esela Perahera today.  Therefore any resistance towards the Dalada Perahera would only mean to articulate the issue with the elephant, to that of opposing a national interest. Abolishing the Esela perahera or eliminating the elephant from it would only mean a loss of a religious and national tradition practiced by a community…  that is how the politics behave in this country today?

Therefore it could be said that the helpless elephant will parade the streets of Kandy for many more years, just as it did during a thirty-year war and today with nobody on the streets, amidst the global crisis of COVID 19.  

Abolishing 05/2001; a re-visit to the mistakes of 1965?

Harvesting tobacco in lowland Mahiyangane

With the new changes taking place with regard to our environment, it seems like the time has come to look back into our past and heed the lessons learnt 'once upon a time’.

Even though Ceylon was granted a Dominion Status (semi-independent polities under the British Crown) in 1948, the economies of Tea, Rubber, and Coconut our main foreign exchange-earners were still controlled by the Sterling Companies. The Brown Sahib in parliament only had to provide for the necessary legislation that favored this economy.

Things went smoothly until troubles started with the death of the first Prime Minister in 1952. There was a ‘Premier Stakes in 1952’, the assassination of the sitting Prime Minister in 1958, the failed ‘Ceylonese coup d'état attempt in 1962’, and the defeat of the government on the ‘Press Take-over Bill’ in 1964. The economy was stalling with hardly any growth. But Ceylon was still considered, South Asia’s ‘blue-eyed boy’ in the Commonwealth. Malaysia took us for example and slashed their jungles and planted Oil-Palm, the developing Port of Colombo was taken as an example by Singapore.

The Dudley Senanayake government of 1965 was a stable one and he was determined to pick up the stalling economy and a campaign named ‘Grow more Food’ was launched. The intension was to bring every piece of cultivable land under a cropping calendar. High yielding paddies were introduced and agricultural research and extension reached the farmer. The project showed better economic figures but was not adequate. The programme was extended to develop cash crops with added value and convert natural forest to economic forest introducing timbers that had a market value. The country had a 30% forest coverage then and much of the land was under the crown.

There was no political opposition to the programme; Wijeweera’s JVP was in its infancy. There was no ‘Ruk Reka Ganno’ or any such organization to oppose the felling of forests. The only organization for the protection of the environment was Thilo Hoffman’s ‘Wildlife & Nature Protection Society’. However, Hoffman’s protests came much later in 1971/1977 when they decided to cut the Sinharaja for plywood. Hoffman’s efforts were successful, he did not have to agitate on the road for his position at A. Baur & Company Ltd was adequate to be heard by the Cabinet and the Prime Minister.

Hanguranketha & Walapane in the Nuwara Eliya District.

Crownland was offered to companies to invest in them and earn the much needed foreign exchange. Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC) a subsidiary of the British American Tobacco Company (BAT) took the initiative to open up lands in the Mahiyangane / Minnipe area for tobacco cultivation. They provided all the inputs from seeds to chemicals, fertilizer, and the technology to the local farmer. Processing the harvest was also given to the local entrepreneurs assisted by the CTC who in return purchased the whole of the processed product. This was a sound investment to the local entrepreneur and casual labor migrated to these areas looking for prosperity. CTC did not stop at Mahiyangane but extended cultivation into the central massif in Hanaguranketha and Walapane.

Hanaguranketha and Walapane located in the leeward side of the central massif has a low rainfall that favored tobacco cultivation. CTC provided for the extension service in these areas by opening Depots in every township. Unlike in the flatter terrain, Walapane and Hanaguranketha were hilly and mountainous with slopes under 45 degrees. This was not an issue for the people who opened up the shrub forest stripping the mountainsides bare of vegetation preparing lands for tobacco. Harvested tobacco needed to be cured and dried in barns. Fuelwood needed to warm these barns was sourced by felling the highland forests. This destroyed the only surviving virgin forest cover in the area. The people were happy for they all made quick money. There was no risk in the investment as the CTC guaranteed the purchase of the harvest. The government was happy with the growth in the economy and the CTC balance sheets carried the story of success.

However, there was no government agency or authority to regulate and study the impacts on the environment caused by opening up large extents of forestland in the mountains. The destruction to the forest cover and the depletion of the nutritious virgin soils through erosion brought disaster to the area in just four to five years. The unstable soils in the highly sloping land made the hills to slide with the slightest precipitation. The water table dipped far down and the streams went dry. The rainfall which was favorable for tobacco was delayed and drought set-in; ultimately the people in Hanaguranketha and Walapane were enlisted to a government-sponsored relief programme.

The CTC was observed to be answerable to this environmental disaster and was made accountable to mitigate the situation. The tobacco cultivation in Hanaguranketha and Walapane got to an end. CTC launched a project with the assistance from Dr. Ray Wijewardane (free of charge) to bring back a green cover to the hills through the ‘Sloping Agricultural Land Technology’ (SALT); planting Gliricidia sepium. CTC reportedly provided the technical support and the Gliricidia to apply SALT techniques and made it mandatory for all tobacco farmers who were already cultivating tobacco to implement this technique. CTC planned to use the Gliricidia as a bio-mass in their Dendro-power plant in Bibile, where a 10 Mega Watt power plant based on using Gliricidia as fuel had been developed. However, the project failed due to the unavailability of adequate Gliricidia but there was a noticeable build-up of the soil” in just three years.

Contrary to all this mayhem CTC received the 'Worldaware Award for Sustainable Development' in the UK for the SALT programme. But Dr. Wijewardene was publicly criticized for involving CTC in his initiative to introduce SALT as a technique to preserve the soil in agriculture in these lands.

The dry zone jungles were also leased to other companies to cultivate value-added timber. It was common knowledge then, for a famous textile manufacturing company to open up large extents of dry zone forestland in the Thanamalwila and Uda-Walawe areas for Teak Plantations.  The capital for the investment was from the sale of the felled timber to the Government Timber Department.

Kumaragama, a stumpy teak plantation destroyed by elephants within the Udawalawe Park 

The remnants of this disruption are seen in the Uda-Walawe National Park and Habarana areas. The teak stumps sprouting around the elephant habitat was once virgin forestlands that were a habitat to all wildlife.

Today after 50 years the government is looking at opening up these re-generating forests once more for economic growth.  Not heeding to the lessons learned back in 1965.

Unlike then, today there is resistance from numerous environmental organizations. There is mandatory regulations that need to be followed to assess possible damage to the environment. The forest cover has depleted to 17% which was 30% in 1965. But the government is deaf and cussed showing vehement on its mission. What they don’t seem to understand is that the consequences today will not be the same as then but definitely severe and harsher.