Elephantine hypocrisy
If the orphans could speak they would tell you hell
is a place called an orphanage for elephants:
Aditha Dissanayake
Who among us has not heard of the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage? That
haven for rescued, injured or abused elephants situated about 3 km away
from the Rambukkana junction on the Colombo-Kandy road. To quote from
travel brochures, you are not an animal lover if you have not paid a
visit here because watching the elephants having their daily baths in
the Ma Oya, buying a ticket to feed a baby, posing for photos near them
is an experience you “will really enjoy and never forget.”
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In his life and death may Neelagiri be an ambassador for all
the other orphans like him... |
Foreign volunteers who have worked with the elephants at Pinnawala
have nothing but praise for the institute. One lady feels being with the
elephants was a life changing experience. “I have walked with the
elephants, fed babies, cleaned up after them, had an afternoon with the
vet to talk about elephants.” says Lesley Rogers who has worked as a
volunteer at the orphanage as part of a package offered to tourists.
“I have watched them play and scratch, watched a baby get to grips
with her trunk, it was hard work but when she finally picked up the twig
she gave the biggest squeal of delight and went to show her mum. I am
the luckiest lady in the world to have been given the opportunity of
living a life’s dream. It was more than I could have imagined and has
changed my life completely.”
Yes, a haven for gawking, visiting homo sapiens. But ask the
elephants and they will tell you a different story. They will tell you
how bone wrenchingly painful it is to be hit and wounded by a goad in
the hands of an angry mahout; they will describe what it feels like to
have three of their limbs tied with chains to trees for weeks at an end,
with limited opportunity for movement and no access to clean water; and
the babies will tell you how much they miss their mothers when they are
chained to a post and fed bottles of milk by total strangers, in front
of a gaping crowd.
Still skeptical? Read this obituary notice. Neelagiri, a twenty three
year old pachyderm passed away under tragic circumstances at the
Pinnawala Orphanage in early January 2011. According to Dr Nevil de
Silva, the veterinary surgeon who conducted the postmortem, death was
due to deep wounds caused by goads.
“The wounds which were inflicted on the animal in November were too
much for the animal to bear.” Dr de Silva says even though the
veterinary surgeon at the orphanage had done everything that could be
done to save Neelagiri, no antibiotic could cure injuries of such
magnitude. “There are incidents where domestic elephants sustained
injuries when mahouts tried to discipline them using their goads,”
explains Dr de Silva. “But this is the first time I have encountered so
many wounds on a single animal.”
While the officials at the PEO remained tight lipped about the
incident (when asked to speak with the head of the institute, the Deputy
Director, one officer said he had gone to visit the head office in
Colombo, and that they did not know his name as he was appointed only
recently)those who had direct connections with the orphanage, who wished
to remain anonymous revealed Neelagiri’s injuries were due to an
underlying conflict between two groups of mahouts. Speaking on behalf of
the mahouts they said “The life of a mahout at Pinnawala is not a bed of
roses. The mahouts have to work in trying weather conditions. And
disciplining giants like Neelagiri, specially when they are on heat, is
not easy.”
A matter of simple disciplining? “No” says wildlife enthusiast
Thusitha Ranasignhe, who has been campaigning to resolve the human
elephant conflict for over ten years. Referring to the drunken behaviour
of the mahouts at the orphanage he asks “What were the army of zoo
employees who draw monthly salaries and benefits and are employed in
professional capacities as Veterinarians, various types of
Administrators in the form of Supervisors, Directors, and Managers doing
till an elephant died on their hands?.” Revealing the orphanage as a
pseudo sanctuary where the “helpless creatures” are tortured by those
who profess to be their guardians Ranasinghe wonders how many more
deaths will be needed to eradicate “the rot of inefficiency, lethargy
and unaccountability that has set in if we are to protect this national
treasure in a decent and humane way.”
Though he believes the decision of the Director of the Zoological
Department to suspend the two mahouts and the curator believed to be
responsible for the wounds on Neelagiri, is a temporary measure, many
others feel Director Baashwara Gunaratne’s statement to the press “We
consider this a very serious matter and we are also calling the police
to investigate in addition to our own internal departmental inquiry.
We will take stern action against officials who failed to supervise
the mahouts” and the confession in spite of the last minute attempts to
save the elephant “we failed”, is commendable in an era when such
incidents are quickly brushed under the carpet.
As Neelagiri breathed his last, having suffered for over two months
from more than a hundred wounds inflicted on him by his “foster
parents”, as he now lies mercifully relieved from pain, on the very
premises he would have yearned to escape, there remains only one prayer
for those of us who grieve over his tragic fate.
In his life and death may Neelagiri be an ambassador for all the
other orphans like him who are “rescued” from one tragic situation only
to end up in an even more tragic, pseudo-sanctuary. Neelagiri, may your
death pave the way to a better life for your kinsmen. May all that pain
have not been in vain.
As for his foster fathers, (perhaps he had too many) may they
remember Julian Huxley’s words “We humans define ourselves by the ways
in which we treat animals”.
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