Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Save the Elephants
Don't feed them in the wild.
Don't patronise places where they're in chains.
Do visit them in national parks to support conservation.
Dwindling Numbers
At the end of the 18th century an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 elephants lived unfettered
across Sri Lanka. By the mid-20th century small herds of the decimated population (per-
haps as few as 1000) were clustered in the low-country dry zone. Natural selection had
little to do with that cull: under the British, big-game hunting delivered a mighty blow to
elephant life expectancy. Today experts disagree about whether numbers are increasing or
diminishing, but the population is believed to be between 3000 and 4000 in the wild, half
of which live on protected land, plus about 300 domesticated animals.
The sacred bodhi tree was brought from India when Mahinda introduced the teachings of
the Buddha to Sri Lanka in the 3rd century BC. Most Buddhist temples have a bodhi tree,
but the most famous is the Sri Maha Bodhi of Anuradhapura, the oldest historically au-
thenticated tree in the world.
Human-Elephant Conflict
Farmers in elephant country face an ever-present threat from animals that may eat or
trample their crops, destroy their buildings and even take their lives. During the cultivation
season, farmers maintain round-the-clock vigils for up to three months to scare off unwel-
come raiders. For farmers on the breadline, close encounters with wild elephants are a lux-
ury they can't afford.
Meanwhile, elephants, which need about 5 sq km of land each to support their 200kg-
per-day appetites, no longer seem to have sufficient stock of food staples in the small wild-
life safety zones where they are protected. Hunger (and perhaps curiosity) is driving them
to seek fodder in other areas - manmade ones abutting their 'secure' habitats. The result-
ing conflict pits elephants against farmers - both just trying to secure their own survival.
