- Does anyone really care?
By Rohan Wijesinha
On 4 September, a cattle farmer informed a local conservationist that for over a week, an injured elephant had been wandering the borders of a forest near the Abakola Ara, not far from the boundary of the Udawalawe National Park. 
He had a serious gunshot injury on a leg and seemed in great pain. The conservationist immediately took the following action:
- He contacted the closest Field Office of the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC). However, he was informed that as the elephant was in the neighbouring administrative district, it was not their responsibility
- He then contacted the DWC’s Assistant Veterinarian at Udawalawe, geographically the closest source of medical assistance for the animal. The doctor was, unfortunately, in Colombo on an official matter
- The DWC’s emergency hotline – 1992 – proved equally fruitless as he received no help from there
- He then called the Veterinarian Officer with responsibility for the Kataragama area, further away, but that doctor had been admitted to hospital for treatment for an illness
- Finally, in desperation, he called the DWC Veterinarian at Minipe, in the Central Province, who agreed to make the journey, of over four hours of travel, to treat the elephant
Despite the best efforts of this dedicated veterinarian, the elephant, who by then had fallen, died on 6 September. He suffered greatly…yet another victim of human callousness and political expediency.
Should we throw stones…
The above chronology of events raises many questions, especially as to the function of the aforementioned statutory organisation that has been set up for Wildlife Conservation for the whole country. Why was there not a better reaction to this report, and better co-ordination, to get treatment for this elephant sooner from a closer Veterinary Unit? Shouldn’t there be internal systems in an institution to deal with a situation such as this, if officials are not at their duty station? After all, wild animals have no comprehension of administrative boundaries, of where to get shot, and where to crawl to die?
In context, four elephants were killed in that area within a few days; not a great surprise as in the last three years, on average, one wild elephant has been killed on every day of the year. There are just six DWC Veterinary Units established for the whole country. They each have large geographical areas under their scope of responsibility, limited resources and, often, have to work in life-threatening situations; several wildlife officers have died, or suffered serious injury while attempting to treat wounded animals.
…and if so, at whom?
There has always been some human-elephant conflict in the Hambegamuwa area, on the borders of the National Park, ever since new settlers were moved there to farm lands, now watered by the new irrigation developments in the area, in the 1970s. These incidents, however, were few and far between, and a human victim of the conflict had not been recorded for over 20 years. That is until just over a year ago, when following the visit of a prominent politician, and an alleged, uninformed utterance of his, the Dahaiyagala Corridor that connects the Udawalawe National Park to the Bogahapitiya Proposed Forest Reserve was encroached upon for development. This corridor, a declared sanctuary, is supposed to have all the legal protection that such a valuable natural resource should have. Used for centuries by wild elephants, and their major route in and out of the park, it has contributed to Udawalawe being recognised world over as the one place where a wild elephant may be seen at any time of the day, on any day of the year. This fame draws hundreds of foreign visitors to the park and fuels a thriving local economy. Yet, just a word from the powerful and the Law is rendered redundant, elephants and people die, and the financial future of the local populace is placed in jeopardy.
In this time of increasing human-wildlife conflict, it seems ludicrous that the DWC has the same number of Veterinary Units set up over half a century ago, when the pressure on their medical expertise was far, far less than it is now. This begs two questions:
- Why has no attempt been made to increase this number of units?
- The Fauna & Flora Protection Ordinance (FFPO), the primary Law of Conservation in Sri Lanka, gives provision for seconding qualified veterinarians in regions to help when the workloads get too much. Of course, they will require some prior training to adapt to the needs of wild animals, as opposed to the domestic kind they usually treat. Why is this not acted on? Is it institutional rivalry where guarding your “territory” becomes more important than the welfare of wildlife? Or is it another Law to be ignored, for the long-term detriment of all?
Does anyone really care?
At the present rate of attrition, in 20 years, there will be no viable population of wild elephants left in Sri Lanka to ensure their continued existence. At the present rate of destruction of habitat, very little else that is wild will be left either, and it will be the people of this nation who will suffer the most. As an island, climate change and global warming will impact us greatly. If we have cut our forests and killed our wild animals, vital for the survival of the first, there is the added question of who will come to visit this country then? What will there be for them to see? As sea levels rise, there will be far fewer beaches, and with the inevitable reduction in rainfall, all brought about by human action, a once green and pleasant land whose hydrological history was once legendary, would have been reduced to an arid wasteland; a place of hunger and thirst.
In another 20 years, the policymakers of today will probably be no longer; not even a word of theirs can change the Laws of Time. Here lies the crux of the problem, do they really care about what their actions of today might bring about then? There was a time when leaders were concerned about the legacy they would leave future generations. Today, they seem content to be the final generation.
It is never too late
China has now determined that it will not finance the building of coal plants in other countries. It is never too late to change, and as the rest of the world seems to have awoken to this need, to protect rather than destroy Nature, it is time that Sri Lanka does too, especially the young to whom the future belongs? Let’s start by saving what we have for them. Surely, there are still some left who still believe in tomorrow?
__________
“As devastating as the consequences of the pandemic have been to humanity, the world faces the even greater challenge of climate change in the decades to come.
“… the unprecedented effect of human activity on the health of the planet is deeply worrying.
“Addressing the grave threats posed by climate change and the loss of biodiversity requires decisive and urgent multilateral action.
“As a climate-vulnerable country, Sri Lanka is deeply aware of the dangers of climate change…
“Sri Lanka’s philosophical heritage, deeply rooted in Lord Buddha’s teachings, also emphasises the vitality of preserving environmental integrity.
“We aim to increase forest cover significantly in the coming decades.”
– The President of Sri Lanka
Address to the UN General Assembly, September 2021
(The writer is a member of the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society [WNPS] Subcommittee on Human-Elephant Co-existence)
