Elephant
Myths-03
I just made a comment on a story about a seaman who had strayed in
sea for one year and survived.
I did not believe a wee bit having cared for malnourished children
and adults, 41 years ago.
This is similar to a story our Ganja Grower (hashish or pot) will give
to a policeman who will record it faithfully as a true story (from
Monaragala).
I did a survey (hypothetical to begin with but a true fact of
evolution in this country) of how a family of 20 elephants would survive
a journey (sea is mind-boggling) from Uda Walawe to Wilpattu?
With the current rate of conflict of Man an the Beast, the chances
are only three (3) will survive and not a single baby elephant.
You should do the calculation yourself.
1. 200 hundred are killed every year.
2. Nearly 70 baby elephants captured by illegal trackers (but probably more).
3. The elephant man ratio is one is to hundred thousands (Ratio 1:100,000) for this family of 20.
4. Human movement is in multiples, a single Ganja Grower / Grover can make multiple trips over and over again without getting caught to our vigilant policemen, after mid night, anywhere in this country without batting an eyelid.
5. But the odds are multiples for a herd of 20, with there pace can grind
to a halt at anytime, when they encounter a Ganja Grower with
automatics (some are ex-serviceman from Late Lalith Athlathmudali's
time-a batch 400 went missing and not accounted for).
Let me begin the track record.
1. Uda Walewas to Lunugamwehera should be a cake walk at night.
2. They would bypass the so called narrow strip of Sinharaja
forest since it is crowed by human activity on all sides and the
stream is small and narrow.
3. Would the the elephants get a good meal on their meal is a moot
point.
4. They will also bypass Hambantota due to cricket, especially due to
flood lit cricket.
5. Their deadliest route is when they emerged from Yala over the
borders of Ganja Cultivation, in Monaragala district.
Please do your own cultivation, since after a sniff they shoot at
anything moving sometimes their own dogs.
Elephants hate dogs even if they do not bark.
6. They will somehow make it to Elahara.
7. From GiraduruKotte to Wasgamura is the most treacherous part, if
not killed certainly maimed in their ordeal to avoid human habitat
(which was their habitat centuries ago).
Thanks to Mahaveli Project our elephants had to devise many ways to
avoid humans.
They come out only at night.
They have very poor vision especially, the baby elephants, the traps
our Ganja Growers have laid is covered with roses (sorry hashish).
8. Then they are in the flood plains of Mahaweli.
They baby elephant's carcass trapped in a tree that BBC published is
the living reminder how treacherous the terrain and flood plains when
torrential rains intervene.
9. They cannot cross to Wilpattu since there are so many religious
activities in Anuradhapura with captive elephants parading and
sending “belly messages” with their empty bellies, signaling the
path is not clear for safe passage of wild elephants.
10. The bottom line is, that there are so many obstacles on their
way, that if the old matriarch is there with the herd with her wisdom
never hurries (or fails) in her journey through.
But many of them were killed or maimed that the younger ones who have
not mastered the tricks of our Ganja Grower, end up in conflict.
That is simply unavoidable.
11. The myth that there is an Elephant corridor was cooked up in 1970s
when we did not have rice to feed our human babies.
That the link with the seaman is real.
Our politicians are better than the seaman and will cook up a
miracle story to hash/bash/brag, my blog post.
