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by Derrick Schokman

We were considering "getting away from it all" for a few days to recharge our batteries. The prescription given by friends was to seek the wide open spaces and wild life in one of the national parks. In which one of these parks was the prescription to be dispensed?

After much discussion we chose the Minneriya National Park where wild jumbos were said to be abundant. And so it was that we set off on a never to be forgotten "safari" from Habarana to the Park. The park borders on the Minneri-wewa (reservoir) created by King Mahasen in the 3rd century AD. This king favoured grandiosity in all his constructions. Jetavanarama which was built during his reign is the largest stupa in Anuradhapura, and Minneri-wewa was the first of the great reservoirs built by the kings of yore - all 6300 acres of it at full supply.

So large was the tank at that period that the chronicler of the Mahavamsa states men worked on it during the day and demons at night to complete it.

The ancient people in the Rajarata were so in need of water for irrigation that they looked upon king Mahasen as a god and worshipped him. They called him Minneriya Deviyo.

They still worship him in a simple fane on the bund of the reservoir and in religious peraheras in his memory.

It was the first ancient reservoir to be restored by D.S. Senanayake when he was Minister of Agriculture in the State Council in the 1930s.

Even in the most serious droughts this reservoir has not dried up, providing a stable source of water for farming and to the wild elephants and other wild animals in the area.

A single jeep track leads on to the reservoir from the park gates. It first passes through a typical dry zone scrub jungle very much the worse for drought.

The streams were bone dry and so were one or two of the water holes we passed. There were no crocodiles sunning themselves with their mouths wide open as they do in the Ruhuna National Park. Wild boar, deer, buffalo and even monkeys were conspicuous by their absence. All we saw was a mongoose scurrying across the track and a lonesome peacock. That was until we arrived at the open plains bordering the reservoir, exposing contours in the drought that are not visible at full supply.

The plains are like animated shopwindows displaying their wares. Eagles, Indian darters, herons and stork are seen competing for the fish, of which there seems to be a never ending supply. But it is not the birds that catch and rivet your attention - it is the elephant host grazing quietly in the plains.

We saw three large herds of fifty to seventy five elephants in each, not forgetting the small families of 3 to 10 in number moving in to join up with the large herds already grazing there.

Elephants are both browsers and grazers, spending about eighty percent of their time on grazing where browsing is scarce.

We were fascinated by the way they tore off blades of grass with their trunks, or in the case of short grass, how they kicked the sod with their feet. Then they would pile up the blades of grass and roots into little mounds which they beat against their legs to dislodge the soil before lifting the feed to their mouths.

These herds were extremely healthy looking, thanks to the plentiful supply of nutritious grass and water. An elephant requires hundred litres or so of water at a time and up to two hundred and fifty litres a day. These herds were also well balanced with several calves, young adults and adults. Young adults in an amorous frame of mind are the ones that provide the drama in the otherwise ponderous calm of these beasts.

We were treated to a bit of drama when a lecherous youngster attempted to flirt with a female, and was firmly driven away by a bull with a massive upper trunk, reminiscent of the tuskless vil aliyas or swamp elephants in Tamankaduwa.

Vil aliyas are much larger than other elephants, better set in frame and bulk with a distinctive wide upper trunk.

Dr. PEP Deraniyagala, one-time Director of the National Museum (1955), thought these characteristics were adequate to treat the vil aliya as a separate sub-species of "forma typica" elephants maximus. Professor Merlin Peris (1986) and some others do not agree. They think the large size of the vilaliya is due largely to the rich fodder and plentiful water readily available to them throughout the year in the swamps of the Mahaweli river, Maduru-oya and Amban-ganga.

At the other end of the scale are the small Ruhuna getayo in the arid South-east corner of the island, who are compelled to feed on a poor diet.

Up to very recently the Lahugala national park was considered the best place to observe large herds of elephant that congregated around the Mahawewa and Kitulana reservoirs to feed on the rich beru grass. But today the vote must surely go to the Minneriya National Park where jeep loads of people go frequently to view even larger herds of wild jumbo that congregate in the wide open plains. We spent an absorbing three hours in the company of ten or so such jeeploads.

On our return to Habarana we were greeted by a troop of langur monkeys (Wanduro) disporting themselves on the roof of our holiday cottage and the trees around.

We missed these playful creatures in the Park and were happy to have them perform for us - a fitting climax to an exciting afternoon.

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