Elephants in Sri Lanka

8/14/2019 Elephants in Sri Lanka

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Elephants in Sri Lanka Elephant is the star of Sri Lankas wild life and the largest land

animal in the island. among the two verities of African elephants (elephas coxenda) and

Indian elephants (elephas maximize maximize), in Sri Lanka you find Indian elephants

and considered to be intelligent than their African counterparts hence domesticated.

Although there have been about 36000 elephants with the start of this century it hasreduced up to about 2000 due to pouching. according to the recent records about 2000 ofthem scattered all over the country in small pockets and about 500 of them are

domesticated.

Elephants in Sri Lanka

Elephant is the star of Sri Lankas wild life and the largest land animal in the island.among the two verities of African elephants (elephas coxenda) and Indian elephants

(elephas maximize maximize), in Sri Lanka you find Indian elephants and considered to

be intelligent than their African counterparts hence domesticated.

Although there have been about 36000 elephants with the start of this century it has

reduced up to about 2000 due to pouching. according to the recent records about 2000 ofthem scattered all over the country in small pockets and about 500 of them are

domesticated.

Appearance

The Sri Lankan elephant is somewhat different to the African elephant where firstly it has

much smaller ears. The profile of it's back, is convex (males) or straight and level

(females), as the case may be,unlike that of the African elephant, which is concave. ThusSri Lankan male elephants have well rounded backs which taper downwards steeply,

while the females have straight flat box-shaped profiles.

Another less obvious difference between the African and the Asian (Sri Lankan) elephant

is the tip of the trunk. The Asian species has two finger-like protrutions while the African

has one. The long and flexible trunk can weigh up to 125 - 200 kilograms (275 - 440pounds). Generally, the Asian elephant has more hair on its body than the African


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elephant, and it is especially conspicuous in the newborn and juveniles. The body colour

could be anything from dark gray of different shades, to dark brown, depending on the

colour of the soil and mud where the elephants have bathed and dusted.

Mature Sri Lankan elephants in particular display heavy pinkish pigmentation of the skin

around the ears, face and trunk. The head of the male has large and pronounced bulges;those of the female are smaller.Only males sprout tusks rarely. (in some cases even longer

and heavier than those of the African species)

Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage is the home for about

60 elephants, out of which many are baby elephants found, abandoned or orphaned in the

wild. They are being cared, fed and trained by the wild life authorities. The best time tovisit is during the feeding times, when one will have the opportunity of seeing the baby

elephants being bottle-fed. Also could accompany the elephants to a river close-by and

see the elephants having their daily bath.

It was started in 1975 by the Department of Wildlife on a twenty five acre coconut

property on the Maha Oya river at Rambukkana. The orphanage was primarily designedto afford care and protection to the many baby elephants found in the jungle without their

mothers. In most of these cases the mother had either died or been killed. In some

instances the baby had fallen into a pit and in others the mother had fallen in and died.

Initially this orphanage was at the Wilpattu National Park, then shifted to the tourist

complex at Bentota and then to the Dehiwala Zoo. From the Zoo it was shifted to

Pinnawela. At the time it was shifted the orphanage had five baby elephants whichformed its nucleus. It was hoped that this facility would attract both local and foreign

visitors, the income from which would help to maintain the orphanage.

In 1978 the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage was taken over by the National ZoologicalGardens from the Department of Wildlife and a captive breeding program launched in

1982. At Pinnawela an attempt was made to simulate, in a limited way, the conditions in

the wild. Animals are allowed to roam freely during the day and a herd structure allowedto form.

The Department of National Zoological Gardens has set up an orphanage for baby

elephants at Pinnawela which is about 13 Km. from Kegalle Town. on the Kegalle-


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Elephants in Yala

Yala (Ruhuna) National Park

Situated 309 km. south of Colombo, Yala is approximately 1,259 sq.km. in extent and is

located in the southeastern corner of the island. Its northern boundaries border on theLahugala Elephant Sanctuary and it has the added bonus of a scenic ocean frontage.

The terrain is varied flat plains alternating with rocky outcrops. The vegetation rangesfrom open parkland to dense jungle. Water holes, small lakes, lagoons and streams

provide water for the animals and birds. The specialty here is the large numbers of

elephants.

Life Style of Elephants Elephant is the star of Sri Lankas wild life and the largest land

animal in the island. among the two verities of African elephants (elephas coxenda) and

Indian elephants (elephas maximize maximize), in Sri Lanka you find Indian elephantsand considered to be intelligent than their African counterparts hence domesticated.

Although there have been about 36000 elephants with the start of this century it hasreduced up to about 2000 due to pouching. according to the recent records about 2000 of

them scattered all over the country in small pockets and about 500 of them are

domesticated.

Pinnawala Elephant orphanage is dedicated to help these endangered species and has

sofa become a success. Also few National parks like Udawalawe, Lahugala aremainly reserved for wild elephants. Major attraction ofYala national parkis wild

elephants.

Any given time you can see large number of baby elephants and female elephants. In aherd you always find female elephants and sometimes herds of male elephants too could

be seen. in case babies are looked after by mother, aunt or another female elephants and

male elephants are loners and never live in a group and are attracted in to a group during


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the mating season (from September to October) only and most of the parks are closed for

visitors during this period.Their average height (height is measured to the shoulder) goes

to about 8 feet (2.5m) and 1800 Kg in weight and consume about 200 kg of foliage andgrass per day and plenty of water for drinking and bathing.

Female elephants give a birth once in 4 years and 2-3 babies in their life span. get 4 setsof teeth and every 10 years a new set of teeth is coming to get the last set when they are

about 40 years old. walk about 20 miles per day and young female elephants are reedy for

mating when they are 13 years old. very active in the night and most of them sleep underlarge trees in the day time. only a few tuskers can be seen in Sri Lanka due to brutal

killings to get their tusks due to high value. However new laws has introduced to protect

them and let tomorrow's people too see them.

Some people believe that they have grave yards and come near to a water resource when

they are about to diesome do not believe it and say ..when they are old their teeth are

wasted and difficulty of consuming heavy branches of trees made them come to a place

where there is grass and water.

Elephants & Festivals Esala Perahera

For two weeks at the end of July and in to the first few day's of august, the hill own of

Kandy is transformed to the way it was before it fell to the British in 815. Elephants

parade the street at night, officials and chieftains wear traditional costume and dancersleap to the timeless rhythm of the drums. It is known as one of the world's grandest and

most spectacular street parades.

It is the time of the Kandy Esala Perahera when people give thanks in song, dance and


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pageantry for a bountiful harvest. Esala also signifies man's strength and velour in having

conquered and tamed the wild elephant.

The significance of this perahera dates to 310 AD when the tooth relic was brought from

India. Before then there was an annual procession to pay tribute for the harvest and to ask

the gods for sufficient water for the next crop. Asking for water is still the main reasonfor the Esala Perahera and is way the chief lay official of the temple of the Tooth is called

the Diyawadana Nilame for diya is the sinhala for water. the last ritual of the perahera is

the water cutting ceremony.

On the night before the perahera begins, the dancers and drummers gather together andrehearse. In ancient times it was the barber, or pannikaya, who show to the costumes of

each participant. While the title remain, the pannikya who personally checks everything.

From the sending of the postcards asking the dancers and drummers to come, to seeingthem off after the celebrations, Chief Pannikya and the four other pannikyas from the four

devales (shrines) are responsible for all the arrangements, under the Diyawadana Nilame.

The perahera itself begins only after the tooth temple astrologer has charted the coures ofthe planets and determined the Nekath Welawa. the auspicious time. When studying thecourse of the planets, he bears in mind that it is customary to end the perahera on Nikini

poya day, the full moon day of August.Before the perahera start there is the kap

hituweema ceremony. A kap ruka is a celestial tree that bestows anything wished for. onlya few are witness to the ceremony when a 45cm - long piece of wood obtained from a jak

tree is planted according to custom in the ground of each of the four shrines. jak is a tree

whose fruit is sometimes used as a substitute for rice in a villager's diet.

The ceremony is conducted by the Kapu Mahattaya, the link between man and got who istraditionally the person who arranges marriages in Sri Lanka. He takes the kap and wraps

it in white cloth, after it has been sharpened to a point. It is then planted in the grounds ofthe devale (shrine).In earlier times the Gaskapanna,or tree cutter, used to cut the tree and the vannakurala, or

keeper of the forest, used to plant the kap.Legend has it that the kap represents the god of

the shrine and that the drummers and the Kodikarayas (flag carriers) used to venerate itby circling it in procession on five consecutive days.

Today five distinct processions form the kandy Esala perahera. They are the Dalada

Maligawa (or temple of the Tooth) procession, and the Natha Devale( dedicated to god

vishnu) the Kataragama devale(dedicated to the warrior god Skanda), and the pattini(dedicated to goddess Pattini)Devale processions.

The Kandy Esala Perahera itself is divided into two events, the Kubal perahera dedicatedto the potter, and the Randoli perahera dedicated to a golden queen. Kumbal means pot in

sinhala; ran means gold and doli for queen.

There are four palanquins in the Randoli perahera formerly used by royalty as litters.They are richly embroidered couches boxed in with curtains and attached to long poles

which act as supports for the bearers who carry them on their shoulders. The significance

of their presence in the Randoli perahera is that the gods of the four shrines are supposedto ride in the palanquins as they are carried in the procession. This accounts for the


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crowds reaching out to put money in to the palanquins as they are temporary places

dedicated to the gods.

It is the duty of the Diyawadana Nilame, the chief lay of the Temple of the Tooth, toinform the Mahanayaka Theros or high priests of the Malwatta and Asgiriya chapter , of

the dates of the perahera. The official also informs the priest in charge of the Thevava,

which is the ritual offering of meals to the gods.

On the day of the procession, one hour prior to its commencement, a cracker is lit in the

grounds of the Tooth. Those who have come to witness the pageant run hither and thitherto get a good view. The cracker is lit to inform the four other shrines that the Tooth

Temple procession is ready to take to the street. The most important part of the Kandy

Esala perahera is this, the Dalada Maligawa procession which leads the others.The

cracker also means that it is time for the chief lay official, the Diyawadana Nilame, tostart dressing. With the help of only one man it takes him 45 minutes to wrap the 30m of

cloth around him and to put on the royal regalia required for the occasion. For the

perahera, the Diyawadana Nilame has three outfits, two in varying shades of red and one

in blue.

After he is dressed, the vidanaya, traditionally agricultural officers who used to surroundhim, request permission to start the perahera. The officials are generally the Kariya

Korale (the astrologer who charts the auspicious time to start the perahera) and the

Gajanayaka Nilame (the chief of the elephants).

The peramune rala, literally the man who walks in fronts,is given the scrol containing the

history of the perahera while the one in charge of the elephants has the silver gourd for

the Kumbal perahera and the golden gourd for the Randoli one.

Next,all the participants report officially for duty to the Diyawadana Nilame. He takes the

key from the inner shrine room and walks into the inner courtyard of the temple of theTooth, accompanied by two people carrying pandang, or hand lanterns, mura ayudha,or

spears.They walk to the outer door of the main shrine where the Diyawadana Nilame

offers the key to the priest in charge of the inner shrine.

The priest pays homege to the tooth relic and takes out the casket for carrying in the

procession. This is placed inside the Dalada Karaduwa, a larger casket which is tied to the

back of an elephant by the astrologer. When everything is ready a second cracker is litand the procession leaves the temple grounds for the streets of Kandy.

The dalada Maligawa perahera is followed by the four others. Natha Devale takes first

place owing to the belief that Natha, or Maithiri, is an incarnation of the budha in one ofhis many births on the way to enlightenment. Vishnu comes second as folklore has it that

Sri Lanka and Buddhism come under his direct protection, in addition to the belief that he

is an incarnation of the Buddha. Kataragamadevale takes third place as one of the mostpowerful gods in Sri Lanka, and pattini forms the rest being classified as a goddess.

The pageant is colorful and incorporates all aspects of our island culture and spectators

never leave disappointed. Each player takes pride in playing the part assigned to him with


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a religious devotion seldom witnessed at other cultural displays.

Many in the crowd count the number of elephants taking part in the perahera, reasoningthat the more elephants, the grander it is. The elephants are decorated with ornate regalia

and battery operated light, adding to the spectacle. The main crowd disperses after the

final night preacher since the day one which follows dose not have the magic of theilluminations dazzling in the tropical night.

On the last night of the Randoli preacher, the Dalada karaduwa (casket) is taken to theAdahana Maluwa, the crematorium of the kings and queens of kandy., and is kept there

for 12 hours in honor of its first resting place in kandy which was the cemetery. The

Adahana Maluwa is situated close to the Temple of the tooth. Hear the ornaments

adorning the Dalada Karaduwa are counted and put away with the chief lay official's seal,to wait another year for the next kandy Esala perahera. The other perahera continues to

Gatambe, a place outside kandy town, for the water cutting ceremony.

The first birth at Pinnawela was in 1984, a female, to Vijaya and Kumar who were aged

21 and 20 years respectively at the time of the birth. Initially the breeding animals

consisted of males Vijaya and Neela and females Kumari, Anusha, Mathalie and Komali.The father of the first three calves born at Pinnawela was Vijaya. It was not possible to

determine the father of the new calves since many males used to mate with the females

anoestrus. Now through DNA fingerprinting the fathers of three have definitely been

identified. Vijaya and Kumari have produced three calves at intervals of five and fouryears. In 1993 Vijaya and Kumari were 30 and 29years respectively. Upto the middle of

1998 there have been fourteen births, eight males and six females at Pinnawela.

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Elephants in Sri Lanka