The real life experiences

                                                                  Escaping from Elephant

                           Kusumalatha was a young woman from Kandy , occupying as ‘Family Health Attendant’ serving near the village  in ‘Kalawewa”.

                              She was n habit of  going to houses in early morning  wearing a white uniform.

A young girl whose father is a ‘Raththaran Rala’   was expecting   before she got married. Because of this reason   she tried several times to suicide      . But Kusumalatha saved her life and found out a job for  her in Kandy.  But Kusumalatha has to go to the   working lace through the   jungle.  She knew that there was an   elephant who killed several people in this village but she didi not meet it before. She   know   that it killed   7 or 8 people in this village.

                                One day when she was coming out of the jungle to the village, riding her bicycle she was amazed to hear a loud sound. In that moment she saw   an elephant coming towards her.. She screamed and shivering. She saw it as a   brown rock because it was   fully covered with mud. When it was saw Kusumalatha   it came to her rapidly. She fell off her bicycle and ran away. When she was running, she fell into a nearby   drainage .   How lucky she was, she had a chance to hide in this drainage.

                                This cruel elephant came to   her bicycle and took it into it’s trunk and threw away. She heard the noise and closed her eyes murmuring   “Ithipiso Bagawa” . Elephant  moving to the jungle hopelessly.  She opened her eyes and she saw that big brown ball moving to the jungle slowely. She thanked to the god and got up.

The real life experiences

                                           Niyapoththa died due to tom the attack  o f  Dalaya

                                 

A large forest   near by Kala wewa is a paradise for the elephants. There are herd of elephants in this forest and   mostly the leadership of the herd   goes to female elephant. To be a member of a herd   an elephant has to fulfill many duties   and responsibilities   , such as obeying the leader etc. If he fails to do so   he will be chased away from the herd by the other elephants . The sole elephant in the thick forest   is one who had that punishment.   One evening the leader of the herd,  King  elephant wac approaching  majestically  along  the bank  of the  tank.

                                The   habit   of   sole   elephant   is  the  more  away  gently  when she he sees the leader. The leader   too     take her distance from another route.  On this day Niyapoththa  did not turn back.  Through she was   scared   he did not show his fear.  He was signaled   to be out of the way but he stood still. At a time like this it paves the way to an   elephant conflict.  It is something unavailable.  Obeying to secret signal  given by the leader  the  rest of  the  elephants  of the herd  entered to forest  with  malady  of fighting sound.

                                    The conflict   went on far about  two hours. There was no sign   that both have a desire to stop it.  Night falls.  They were still on the road   facing each    other  . Breaking the silence of twenty minutes they started to attack   each other   again Niyapoththa was not ready to accept the      defend.  At once Dhalaya jumped forward and   hit the hip of Niyapoththa. The tusk of   Dhalaya went through   Niyapoththa’s body. The tusks got   wet from the red blood.  Niyapoththa fell down with   a fatal sound   and died with an half an hour.

The research conducted in Udawalawa

We conducted our research in Sabaragamuwa and Uva Provinces, in Sri Lanka including the four villages Thimbolpitiya, Thaligamyaya, Saligama, Panahaduwa closed to Udawalawe National Park. 

Before the designation of Udawalawa as a national park, the area was used for shifting cultivation (chena farming). The farmers were gradually removed once the national park was declared.  Udawalawe is an important habitat for water birds and Sri Lankan Elephants. It is a popular tourist destination and the third most visited park in the country.

We conducted discussions with not only the experts in this field but also the farmers in this area. We used Hand held GPS to map the housing locations and the damage places. This was very useful to identify the distance between the housing locations and the forest boundary and existing electric fence.

                                                                                  

mapping the housing locations and the damage places using GPS.



On our to fine the damages caused by the elephants

 



Interviewing the villagers.



The Present Pathatic Situation

The Present Pathatic Situation

According to the research of Divisional Secretary of Galgamuwa

     in the North-Western Province in Sri Lanka.

01.  Wild elephants have been living in this area for thousands of years.

          And there was enough forest for them.

    

   02.  As a result of infra-structure development, the human population increased

          and people illegally cleared the forest in order to grow crops, and later the 

          government issued  deeds for these lands to the people so that they could

          continue their cultivations.

   03.   The war and the mahaweli project forced the natural elephant population      to move towards Galgamuva

          THE ABOVE REASONS CAUSED THE WILD  ELEPHANTS  TO INVADE THE

          CHENAS  AND THE GARDENS OF THE FARMERS.

As a result of this, the people face a series of problems caused by the stranded wild elephants.

—      Death 

—      Injury and part or complete disability.

—      Damage to houses.

—      Destruction of crops.

—      Eating stored grains.

—      Interruption  for the villagers’ day-to-day  life            

Beginning of the Human's and Elephant's conflict!

During the Hunting stage there was no sound of Human Elephant Conflict. In that stage the main problem was how to find the food and this problem began with shepherd age, in together with Agriculture as there were no any other jobs.
One of the major reason for the start up that both humans and elephants food was same. And the humans began cultivating in one place close by reservoirs so as these are the places where elephants also roamed. During the migration period of Aryans from India the people's cultivation was increased and the people use to clear the jungles when the elephant use to pass by, So when the elephants use to move over the paddy fields they manage to find their food from those fields.
As we being aware of those days the human Spread very minimal and both the population had ample of living areas and easily there were manage o found their food. With the development of Colonization, gradually the humans invaded the animal's habitation. In order to protect the Cultivation, human's began to chase the elephants away from the cultivated areas. Not only cultivation due to other man made projects such as Galoya, Mahaweli we limited the elephants freedom to a smaller area. To gain wore lands free from elephants the humans invented lot of methods such as primitive methods (shouting, heating, fire and the sounds of the other animals, charms and so on) and later the sophisticated methods like electrocuted fences, and fire stimulated came into use.
After chasing all the elephants they are competed to gather the areas such as Ampara, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, and Those areas are the less populated areas with the development of the human habitants the people also moved into the same areas where the elephants competed to live. With the development of trade there again people tend to move to the areas where the elephants roam and the conflict got a new mood with the growth of the commercial crops such as Tea, Rubber, Coffee and Spices again the people largely acquire the areas where elephants freely roamed in So like this the friendship between the man and the elephants gradually declined.
In latter stages to chase away the wild elephant's peoples used tamed elephants also and that worsened the Human – Elephants collision. As we know the elephants are very wise set of animals and when they move a round they stick on to particular track system but when humans had their development they were compelled to block these elephants avenues due to their construction, fencing and other projects with this elephants compelled to break these new constructions and also aggravated their grievance against the human.
When we analyses this human – Elephant struggle from individual's aspect both have not thought to harm each other but for survival of each other, they are compelled to attack each other. After humans arrived and started their settlements, and especially with advent of irrigated agriculture. For thousand years, people have been converting mature closed canopy forests in the dry zone into agricultural fields. They have been damming rivers, tributaries and streams to make numerous reservoirs or tanks. While shifting agriculture practiced for thousands of years created and maintained ideal habitats for elephants, irrigated agriculture was a permanent form of land use which excluded elephants.
However with the rise and fall of centers of civilization through history, even such permanent agricultural areas were periodically abandoned and turned into regenerating forests. this means the dry zone habitats in sri lanka are not pristine forests but those that have arisen after land use by humans centuries ago. over the past few thousand years, such habitat change by humans have created conditions ideal for species such as water birds, amphibians, water monitors, crocodiles as well as elephants. this is the main reason why even today sri lanka supports such a proportionately high density of elephants for an island with limited land area.
Around 13th century AD' the civilization in the dry zone gradually declined, and the center of civilization slowly shifted to the wet zone. from the 16th century, the came under colonial rule, during which period the wet zone became populated. large scale land-use changes took place due to the growing of cash crops, while the targeted killing of elephants practically eliminated them from the wet zone. today the last wet zone elephants are found in the remnant forests of the peak wilderness.

Present Situation
According to the data of the wild life conservation department in Germany-Italy 2000 in taken into account the number of details only in the North-West wild life zone is 55. By December it was 65 by the first 6 months of 2000 another 23 elephants have been killed in Mahaweli areas. In the South was 8, 4 in the East, Yala, Boondala it was 3. The contract post it was 1.
In the second part of their look you concerned a number of 5 stories collected after programming all the 4 corners of the island. They will make you understood the forcible caused to features by elephants and caused by those who are environmental. The thieve was course for our hands and open their eyes and protect these animals who get themselves killed. When remaining about in search of food for their hungry.
It is a national requirement like in India to establish your folk with food, grass and water required by their. In the national declaration that they start has now published these are so many short comings. There is a scheme to capture killer elephants and rehabilitate them. It is necessary to think now useful that will be tourist call Sri Lanka the country where there are elephants those who cause to this country and to see them thrown of dollars. There is a leader of the remaining few elephants those are in the jungles. The national elephant policy should evolve around there and their means of live hood. We will read a few stories depleting the elephant-human conflict from here onwards.