Sri Lanka has a long history of close human elephant association and these pachyderms are an important and integral part of its culture, society and religion. The Sri Lankan subspecies is the largest and also the darkest of the Asian elephants, with patches of depigmentation on its ears, face, trunk and belly.
Once found throughout the country, elephants in Sri Lanka are now being pushed into smaller areas as development activities clear forests and disrupt their ancient migratory routes. The shrinking of their habitat forces elephants into close quarters with humans which often leads to raiding of crops sometimes injuring people or causing death which leaves them vulnerable to retaliatory killings.
At a time, when the elephant population in Sri Lanka is rapidly falling a young activist is taking tremendous efforts to conserve this majestic mammal. Twenty three year old, Tharindu Muthukumarana a past student of Royal Institute, Nugegoda has written the book `The Life of Last Proboscideans: Elephants’ to make people understand this intelligent creature.
“Elephants are fascinating creatures and are loved by people all over the world. As a wild life enthusiast, from my younger days I had a passion to learn about elephants. It lured me to learn and do research about them. I started collecting information and researching when I was twelve and now I have put them together in a book which I would like to share with other wildlife enthusiasts,” Muthukumarana said.
Muthukumarana says both African and Asian elephants face massive threats from poaching, habitat loss and human-elephant conflict. “The elephants on my book cover depict both species. The African elephant known as Satao was one of Kenya’s largest elephants. He was always a target for poachers. Kenyan Wildlife Service monitored Satao’s movements. Despite these efforts he was killed by poachers using a poisoned arrow,” he said.
“The Asian elephant was known as Parakrama alias Siyambalangamuwa tusker and lived in North Western Province. The locals protested accusing Parakrama had killed villager. During his translocation the truck he was on gave away blocking his respiratory system and he died. It is a tragedy to see the majestic animals face extinction,” he added.
He believes that a sound knowledge of elephants, their ways, habits and family life will help people appreciate the elephant more. “The future on the elephant considerably depends on man. The three major threats – illegal trafficking of elephants for ivory poaching, habitat loss and abuse are all created by humans. Thus solutions to these issues should be found through people who would understand them better and who are willing to take action to prevent their extinction,” Muthukumarana said.
“Creating awareness among diverse community is an important strategy. Modern day social network platforms play an important role in this. Through social media youth can be persuaded and prepared for conservation. We have had Ice Age, Stone Age and I believe future would be the age of conservation. If these gentle giants are to survive it is up to the people to care about them. I hope my book will reach a wider audience and create a passion about elephants in the reader,” he added.
“Elephants and human should co-exist. Both humans and elephants should benefit from each other. Government, non governmental organisations should work together to conserve this mammal and conservation strategies are an urgent need of the country,” Muthukumarana added.
Tharindu’s book will be launched on Sunday, August 13 at 5 pm at Lighthouse at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute, Colombo 7 commemorating World Elephant Day 2017. Chief Guest at the event will be Minister of Wildlife and Sustainable Development, Gamini Jayawickrama Perera while the keynote address will be delivered by Former, Director of Wildlife, Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya. Honourary address will be made by Managing Trustee of Biodiversity and Elephant Conservation Trust, Jayantha Jayewardene.
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