Sri Lanka seeks harmony between elephants and humans

As part of my expanding Wild Orphans Part 2 project which will focus on Asian elephant issues and domestication across the whole of SE Asia and India I see a regular feed of articles and research from the region - occasionally I'll post those here in part or entirely. Sharing this post from writer Mel Gunasekera of Agence France-Presse - in its entirety.

*****

LUNUGAMWEHERA, May 17 - In the early hours of a hot dry day, four orphaned elephants begin a bumpy truck ride back to the jungles of southern Sri Lanka where they had been rescued from near certain death.

The four baby jumbos -- now aged five and six -- are ready to leave the Elephant Transit Home where they have been treated and cared for since they were less than a year old.

The state-run home is refuge for dozens of baby elephants who are separated from their herds, fall into wells or ditches or are shot at by angry farmers as they raid banana, rice and sugarcane farms for food.

A one-hour drive takes Ollie, Toledo, Zicasso and Rani to the release site deep inside the Lunugamwehera national park. To rid them of human odour, they are hosed with elephant dung mixed in water.

The wildlife department staff clasp their hands in prayer while a saffron-robed Buddhist monk chants blessings for the elephants' future.

At first they seem surprised by the lack of fences, but soon lumber off into the undergrowth.

The release is a special day for the carers and conservationists, who hail the programme as a successful method of re-integrating animals into the wild and saving Sri Lanka's dwindling elephant population.

"They look cute and cuddly, but their survival is under threat," Wildlife Department director general Ananda Wijesooriya told AFP as he watched his former patients disappear.

Over the next few months, satellite radio collars will hopefully show female Rani integrating into a herd and the three males establishing their individual roaming areas, said project veterinary surgeon Neshma Kumudhini.

"It is our small effort to grow the elephant population, which is under threat due to the human-elephant conflict," she said.

The number of elephants in the country is estimated to have dropped from 12,000 in 1900 to just 4,000 now. Two-thirds live outside protected parks in shrinking habitats, and constantly come into conflict with humans.

Hundreds of elephants are killed annually by villagers, while marauding herds also trample locals to death.

In 2009, the conflict claimed the lives of 50 people and 228 elephants, the highest toll in recent times, said Wijesooriya.

"Their aggressive behaviour has instilled fear and animosity among villagers when they roam in search of food and water," he explained.

Elephants have long been an integral part of Sri Lankan culture, and are a religious symbol for both the majority Buddhist and minority Hindu communities.

But they also clash with humans, said specialist elephant biologist Manori Gunawardena.

"It's like having a really bad next-door neighbour," said Gunawardena, who knew a farmer killed last year by a lone elephant.

Finding solutions to the problem in Sri Lanka, which finally ended a decades-long ethnic conflict with Tamil Tiger rebels a year ago, has been virtually impossible for conservationists.

For decades, efforts to move the elephants away from villages using loudhailers and firecrackers have failed. Most relocated elephants try to return to their original territory.

Between 2005 and 2006, the government spent 1.5 million dollars to drive elephants from the island's far south towards a national park in the southwest.

Officials moved some 250 elephants -- mostly herds of females, babies and juveniles -- but more than 300, including the adult males, escaped the operation.

"Elephants are very intelligent, they are very attached to their original home ranges and most often always try to come back," said Prithiviraj Fernando, who heads the Sri Lankan Centre for Conservation and Research.

Fernando, who has been tracking elephants for nearly 15 years using radio collars, says Sri Lankans must learn to live alongside elephants.

The government increasingly works with private conservationists to protect villages with electric fences.

Under a proposed 20 million dollar World Bank loan, the new model will be tested in the island's south, where a slew of infrastructure projects including a new international airport, port and a cricket stadium are being built.

"We must accept that the human-elephant conflict will never be solved. For that to happen, either the humans or the elephants must be eliminated," said World Bank lead environmental specialist Sumith Pilapitiya.

The model has been in operation for the past three years in the southern area of Thammannawa, where an electric fence has been erected around village perimeters.

"The locals' crops are safe, their lives are safe, the elephants live. That's the model we want to encourage," said Fernando.

Article Copyright © 2010 AFP. Photo Copyright © 2010 Gerry Ellis. All rights reserved.

Watching Wild Orphans from a distance

During the early months of filming at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust I learned my plan, my ideas, were my own - the baby elephants and circumstances of their survival were the true dictators of what would be ultimately accomplish. Sometimes that was extremely frustrating, and painful, especially when it involved the death of an orphan. But ultimately I was a guest, an outsider. As a photographer and writer that's my job - view from the outside, try to understand the view from the inside - the people, places and creatures that live it every day, and then shed light on both with camera and pen. And if it works, you, the reader and viewer see how those two world mix, match, conflict and co-exist.

At the core of this profession is constantly reminding myself to remain open to change, flexible in plans, and receptive to new perspectives. That was critical to the final success of the Wild Orphans project in that first phase, so it seems is the case in Wild Orphans part II.

The orphanage over the past decade has become a mecca for anyone wanting to tell a heart-warming tale of little elies. That attention is partly due to the Wild Orphans book - I know by the number of producers from around the world who have emailed or called me for copies of the book as they prepare to explore the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and baby elephants for their own programming. In that sense what was created a decade ago was more than a book - and I delighted Daphne Sheldrick and the dedicated people of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust have benefited from all the support they gave the Wild Orphans project. As a consequence the Trust and folks that have to keep orphaned baby elephants and rhinos as their first priority have been inundated with requests to access and use the babies as celebrities. In the past 60 Minutes, BBC, and many others have come to tell the Wild Orphan story. Currently National Geographic and IMAX both have projects in the works. (As soon as those two productions are available I'll post them here on the blog.)

Sadly, with so much going on, I won't be returning in the near future to pick up Natumi's story and bridge a decade of being wild in the bush of Tsavo East NP. Instead I'll watch from a distance and continue updates and links here to the Trust's work and the babies, especially Natumi, who I annually adopt. (if you would like to foster and support a Wild Orphan baby or any of the others please link here to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust site.) Instead, I will be focusing my efforts and this blog on another elephant project in SE Asia and India that looks at domesticated elephants and elephant-human conflict issues. The first blog post of that project will be coming shortly linked to a recent visit to India's Kaziranga National Park.

Again, if you have not donated to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust I urge you to do so, and receive their email newsletter updates.

Elephant Gala Fundraiser
February 25th - SoHo, New York City

Looking for an opportunity to help the orphans? Please join U.S. Friends of The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust for a special evening on February 25, 2010 to support the orphaned elephants and rhinos of Kenya. More Gala information and sign up.

to benefit

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Thursday, 6:30 to 9:30 pm

at The Wild Horses of Sable Island Gallery
Attire is cocktail or dressed business

Important RSVP/Purchase Tickets Information: Tickets are limited for this event and are thus available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Tickets will not be sold at the door the night of the event.

Helping Wild Orphans in Kenya

Many of you have asked about helping at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, beyond the always needed donation and adopting of an orphan. As I mention at my speaking presentations it's very difficult to work directly with the orphaned elephants and rhinos for a number of reasons. The primary concern is time, most visitors have only a few weeks to a couple months to volunteer and that creates separation issues - in becoming orphans the babies have already lost one life connection, to attach to a volunteer and that person leave would be potentially devastating. Something Dr Dame Daphne Sheldrick (photo above) is dedicated to not let happen twice.

If you are going to be in Kenya for a year or longer docents are often considered for meeting with the visiting public and school children each day. For that opportunity you would need to contact the Trust directly and explain your offer. To do so contact them via their contact webpage

Wild Orphan photos support environmental journalistic freedom

Almost a decade after some of the Wild Orphan images were originally created I am proud to say they continue to resonate and draw the attention of editors and publishers. Most recently four of the photographs created were selected to appear in the latest edition of the Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres), or RSF, annual fund-raising publication, Nature: 100 Photographs for Press Freedom. Read more about it in my posting 100 Photographs for Press Freedom.

Wild Orphans 2 - a new journey

Their are multiple reason for starting a separate Wild Orphans blog. Over the years I have receive an incredible number of emails from people who purchased the original Wild Orphans book and were as touched and moved by the photography and words as I was by the babies and people who made the story possible. So this Wild Orphans specific blog is for all of you, my friends, my former staff, kind people who attend my speaking presentations and want to hear more stories, more thoughts - perambulations - about the babies, and more photos and sounds, my snippets of an experience that becomes more amazing as I grow older and realize how lucky, genuinely special and rare it has been. This blog is also the initial step along with the partner Wild Orphans website to update the story a decade later. Please if you have any questions feel free to contact me at my Wild Orphans specific email - gerry@wildorphans.net

This blog and the other digital sharing technologies that are available now also make it possible to share the upcoming journey in a way not possible in 1999 when I began the initial Wild Orphans project. I will being using as many of these as possible to share with all of you who care to join on the ride what its like to return to East Africa, reconnect with the babies and the people, and experience their lives anew.

And finally it, this want to say more, is inspired by a fellow earthling - a creature I share little and everything with - her name is Natumi. She is a African elephant, now going on 10 years old, and living happily in the arid wilds of Kenya's East Tsavo National Park. She was the cover girl of my 2001 book Wild Orphans, the four year story of her and seven other orphaned babies struggle to survive and the amazing effort of the folks at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust outside of Nairobi Kenya to keep these little floppy-eared alive. Over the next few months I'll post a collection of previous writings and new thoughts on Natumi and those days and what I think they mean now - a decade later.

Finally, I want to dedicate this new project to my dearest friend and guardian angel over the past couple decades working and traveling in Africa - Davida "Bunny" Shaw. Bunny died recently and my heart still hurts. I will have few friends as kind, as dear, and straightforward as she. I will miss you never so much as the next time I touch down in Africa - this new work is for you Bunny.