Ensuring a brighter future for Lanka's elephants
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Elephants are part of Sri Lanka’s religious and traditional
activities
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As part of its efforts to boost the population of elephants, which
are facing an uncertain future in the wake of rapid deforestation, Sri
Lanka is planning to undertake artificial insemination process at its
unique elephant orphanage in Pinnawela, about 80 kms northeast of
Colombo en route to Kandy.
The orphanage, which came into being with just seven elephants in
1975 with the aim of helping deserted baby elephants, now has 82
elephants, including 40 male, and has become one of the most popular
tourist attractions of Sri Lanka.
Assisted by foreign and local elephant experts, the 25-acre facility
has also turned out to be a successful scientific captive breeding
centre, and has a total of 46 captive berths to its credit since the
first birth in 1984. The youngest of the elephants here is just three
months old while the eldest is 65 years.
"We are planning to take up artificial insemination and our experts
have undergone training in Thailand, where the latest successful
artificial insemination had been carried out in March this year,"
Assistant Director of the orphanage Anoma Priyadarshini told a group of
visiting Indian journalists recently.
"The process was very complex as preservation of elephant semen was a
difficult task and the present lab in the orphanage would also have to
be upgraded. We plan to do it in six months to one year," she added.
R Chandana Rajapaksa, one of the Veterinarian in Pinnawala Orphanage,
who has undergone training in artificial insemination of elephants in
Germany and Thailand, said some staff members had also been trained by
the Zoo Outreach Organisation, an NGO, in India.
"Our aim is not to make money by the artificial insemination but to
increase the number of elephants," he said. Rajapaksa said another vet
surgeon would also be sent for training in artificial insemination and
they would in turn impart training to other staff members.
According to the Department of Zoological Gardens, which manages the
orphanage, all the elephants in the orphanage belong to sub species of
Elephas maximus maximus. Rajapaksa said the orphanage was set up
primarily to help baby elephants which get lost from their herds.
These baby elephants often fall into abandoned irrigation wells or
get injured while being chased away by villagers when they stray into
their fields.
Stating that diminishing habitat made the wild elephants to stray
into fields, Rajapaksa said the forest cover of Sri Lanka had come down
from 70 per cent at the start of the 20th century to a precarious 17 per
cent, severely affecting the elephant herds.
Elephants are part of Sri Lanka's religious and traditional
activities and often they are sent from the orphanage to nearby temples
for festivals like Kandy's 10-day pageant, the Esala Perahera in which
the caparisoned elephants lead the procession. There are an estimated
3,000 wild elephants in the country and about 150 under private
ownership.
The orphanage, which has 10 'friendly female' elephants assigned to
take care of new arrivals of baby elephants, provides the much needed
moving space for the largest terrestrial animals.
Besides the feeding of baby elephants, the other chief attraction is
the spectacular 500 meter journey of the herds for their two-hour bath
in the Ma Oya river at the appointed time of 10 am and 2 pm every day.
The elephants roam freely during the day in a herd. But, there is
also a protective electric fence to dissuade the pachyderms from going
out, Rajapaksa, who had been to India for workshops and seminars on
elephant conservation, said.
There is also an elephant which had fallen a victim to the ethnic
strife in the country as it lost the lower part of one of its legs after
stepping on to a landmine but still it had been making it to the waters
by walking on three legs all the way.
On their return from the river in the evening, the elephants are
taken to their sheds for the night and given their food. The young
animals are being fed with milk and subsequently change into
supplementary food and later on foliage.
The average daily expenditure of the orphanage is around Rs 75,000
which is met from government funding. Times of India |
