A tale of an elephant
 The readers all over the world are fascinated by the elephant tales.
They include tales from Asia, Africa and other places. It is observed
that the wealth of a person in the ancient world depended on the number
of elephants he possessed. It is difficult to believe the behaviour of
some elephants in the oriental society, for they have exhibited both
kindness as well as atorocity to the humans. Some such elephants have
been either shot dead or caught and entrapped due to the harm brought
about by them to the farmers.
But all in all the elephant is regarded as a creature who could be
tamed for various sacred and other social duties. They are the
casket-bearers in the pageants and the ones with wisdom at the right
time. The kings of the past have protected the elephant by means of
kindness bestowed on them.
The children are taught that the elephant, if understood in its
correct perspectives, will bring good results. Some jataka stories and
Panchatantra tales lay emphasis on this theme.
Elephant legends
We come across the story of the Mathuposaka, the young elephant who
showed kindness to his blind mother and proved to the king of the
country that he should not be killed or trapped or brought to the royal
palace and stabled.
 The wise king who understood this factor allowed the elephant to live
in the forest protected by the hunters. Then we come across the rough
behaviour of the elephants of the calibre of the Nalagiri as utilised by
the enemies of the Buddha to kill him. But the elephant who was drunk
became tame.
On reading the children’s book titled ‘Walige Kota’ written by Manel
Fernando and illustrated by Geetha Seneviratne (Godage International
2011) one may feel that the creation is a modern day version of the
ancient legend of an elephant as one sees in a jataka tale. The elephant
in this narrative is treacherous and lonely.
‘Tani aliya’ is the term used by villagers to denote the behaviour of
such an elephant. This elephant does a lot of harm to the villagers
going to the extent of even killing villagers as they drive him off the
fields.
The disaster has to be eradicated by some means.
The portrayal of children, who are in a sense wiser than the adults,
paves the way for the wild life authorities to enter the scene to catch
the elephant to take him to a better place to live.
Alternative for killing
Here we come across a veterinary doctor, who uses a ‘medical gun’ to
benumb or tranquilise the elephant to take him alive to a better habitat
or a sanctuary to live.
This episode presumably is the most sensitive area in the narrative
which enables the child to possess insights to modern technology that
could be utilised well instead of killing as a solution.
This helps the child reader as well as the adult reader gauge the
value of an elephant if caught alive, instead of killing him merely
because he brings disaster, which should be understood as a behaviour
given to him by the nature itself.
I feel that this is the right kind of narrative that should be
written for the children to rethink of their role in the society at a
time like this. We hear the killing of man-eaters of the crocodile types
and other species perhaps endangered and with time be lost for ever.
As a reader I found several significant layers of narrative, where
the children and the adults are mixed and their ideas collated to bring
about solutions for their own benefit.
Then there is a creative layer where the children play a vital part
on the serious issues of observation to learn and protect their
environment and the species that live there.
‘Walige Kota’ is not only an elephant’s tale but also is a tale of
the environment and the need to protect it.
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