Without further ado, let’s be clear that
9th September’s Sunday Times has an article where one of Bandula’s
keepers from way back when he was small, Vasantha Nugegoda, who is now an
expert in zoos who goes around the world to advice zoos in the care of
elephants, saying he should remain where he is and he will die if he is moved
to Ridiyagama Safari Park, which is where the clamor is to move him to.
Vasantha maintains he was a perfect specimen of a well formed and attractive
elephant who was brought from Somawathiya in 1949 and has only lightly been
chained when in Musth, and the emotional outbursts in the press are truly false,
based on false information.
Contrast this with the story put out in
the same Media Group’s sister paper, the Daily Mirror today, September 12th
2018, which is appealing to the emotions of animal welfare lovers, and included
in the high stakes appeal they have drawn his namesake Bandula Jayasekera a
former reporter, who is taking up this cause, and Dr Sumith Pilapitiya who is
non-committal, except to say that elephants should not perform in circuses or
zoos and certainly not used for transporting people for a ride. Their places
should be where they are free to roam.
So the latter article concludes that ALL
THE ELEPHANTS including Bandula should be moved to Ridiyagama Safari Park as
the area at Dehiwela is insufficient for them to be unchained and be allowed to
roam free in a larger area. They are appealing to the President as the Minister
of the Environment, but not directly responsible for the Zoo which is part of
the Ministry of Sustainable Development to release this animal, and send him to
Ridiyagama, which Vasantha Nugegoda claims will kill him, as it is a
surrounding he is UNFAMILIAR with, and at his age of 69, he is not in a
position to absorb and assimilate into new surroundings.
It is then up to the reader to read both
articles very carefully and comment on the pros and cons and suggest means to
achieve the best for the animal, as that is what we are trying to do, and make
different insinuations, based on our knowledge and if two elephant experts give
contradictory opinions, which do you choose, when you cannot ask the elephant
what he will prefer, when he does not know what the alternative is anyway,
except that the chains will be removed and he will allowed to go where he
pleases!
There is never the right answer as we have no idea how the animal feels. We try to second guess what is best and we COULD make the wrong assessment here.
ReplyDeleteSo the moral of the story is NOT TO TAKE anyone from their natural habitats!
So what do you do if an elephant calf is found alone? Leaving it there it will surely die, so you take it in and as soon as practically possible try and get him or her to join an existing herd. Is this what is done at Walawe Transit Home?
So if we move all the elephants from the zoo in Dehiwela then it is OK to move Bandula with them as they are all he knows as family.
I am told that when an elephant moves his head to and fro they are distressed and in mental anguish and most of the Dehiwela Elephants are that way.
So you go round and round in circles trying to find the best solution. I suppose in the end, find a 25 acre or so habitat somewhere and put them all together with plenty of fodder, but initially for the first year they have to be fed what they are used to till they get used to the pasture around them. I suppose that can be an attraction where people pay and see them from some height in the middle of the enclosure they go to from underground tunnel. This way they can earn their keep as well.
As you can see, many experts have to get together and come at a consensus opinion rather than argue with each other to get your own way. Coming at a decision as you can see is the hardest thing in Sri Lanka