The battle to protect our elephants
It was a daring effort -a daunting search mission to locate ‘Walawe Raja’ – the much loved tusker of the Uda Walawe National Park (UWNP) who had suddenly gone missing towards 2009. Raja was not only mammoth in size but also in character and for wildlife enthusiast and senior tourism and management professional, Srilal Miththapala, Raja held a special place in his heart.
Srilal Miththapala showing the stories published in the Sunday Times Plus about the search for Raja. Pic by Nilan Maligaspe
Giving the public a first-hand insight into the search mission at a presentation last week at the Tourist Board auditorium, Mr. Miththapala and son Dimitri -also an avid wildlife enthusiast- detailed how the project came to be. “Raja was an extraordinary character. It is not wrong to say that he was the king of Uda Walawe because his towering presence emanated so much grace,” said Mr. Miththapala who was deeply disturbed when he found Raja had not returned to the UWNP.
“In 2003 he had a beautiful pair of tusks, but later he had broken off one of them. To my surprise, he started growing it back again,” he recalls. Raja was an energetic character, especially during the period of musth (a cyclic sexual phenomena) when Raja would make his presence felt by exerting his dominance over the other elephants.
“Although he was aggressive towards other elephants, he didn’t show any aggression towards us and not once did he attempt to charge,” said Mr. Miththapala. “He would come over to us, and cast us a nonchalant glance as if to ask what this puny jeep was doing here.”
It was on another excursion that one of Mr. Miththapala’s friends -Asoka, a research officer- had seen a perforation at the tip of Raja’s trunk, believed to have been caused by getting trapped in a snare. Ajay Desai, India’s leading elephant expert had told Mr. Miththapala that such a wound would cause problems in the intake of water if located higher up the trunk. However the only salvation was that this particular wound was located towards the tip of Raja’s trunk.
Vets could not treat him during this period as he was in musth, and towards the latter stages of 2009 Raja did not make his usual appearance at the park. “We were worried, but the strange thing is that only when we inquired from the park wardens did they realise that Raja was in fact missing,” says Mr. Miththapala mentioning- a significant lack of awareness on the part of the authorities.
2010 dawned and Raja had still not made an appearance. This was when they realised that something other than just sitting and criticising had to be done. “The intention was to ascertain whether there had been any recent sightings and thereby locate him. We knew it was difficult, but with the help of my son and local guides, we started looking for the fairly big needle in the haystack,” says Mr. Miththapala.
The ‘Find Raja’ project was funded primarily by an anonymous donor -an avid elephant lover- living in the United States and the Sunday Times Plus joined hands in running a weekly column on the progress of the project. “We managed to get this much needed help, and drummed up interest in the public.”
Between October 2010 and January 2011, they had made over 20 excursions just outside of the North Eastern areas of the park, tracking down possible leads. “We had little flyers and booklets citing Raja’s features, and distributed them amongst the villagers. At first they thought we were a bunch of crazy people from the city, but later they started feeling an interest in finding Raja themselves. This was heartening,” says Dimitri. However, life wasn’t easy for the team as the villagers often made contradictory claims. “It is a Sri Lankan trait to try to please the other person, and many villagers were reluctant to tell us that they had not seen Raja.
There were a few fabrications which made life a little difficult for us, but it took nothing away from the amount of enthusiasm shown by the people,” Dimitri says, adding that even people who faced the brunt of the human-elephant conflict would come forward to help them. They walked miles each day, till dusk set in over the lakes dotted across the park, hoping to see Raja’s silhouette in the distance.
Ajay Desai, suggested that Raja might have gone out of the home range and his injury could have made him weaker and forced him to another area, probably Lunugamvehera to get away from the competition. The team also searched Lunugamvehara and areas away from Raja’s usual home range but drew a blank.
Nearly four months later, with all the data collected on paper, numerous interviews with villagers and exhaustive trips, the team knew that there was little hope left. They had to conclude the project.
Meanwhile another tusker, Dmitri’s own favourite Sumedha has made his move to fill in the void left by Raja. “Sumedha is huge, but even he bowed down to Raja. Raja was the king.” However, Dimitri believes it is now Sumedha’s time to reign.
Of the four tuskers at UWNP, Raja, Sumedha, Kalthota Raja and Asoka, Raja is missing, and Asoka was found shot dead within the park. “There is still hope for budding Raja’s to come into Uda Walawe,” says Mr. Miththapala, adding that the Elephant Transit Home in Uda Walawe has released six young tuskers into the park.
At the end of the day, the Miththapalas say that many people had only one question on their minds – was it really worth it -an intensified search operation for a single elephant? Srilal and Dmitri Miththapala have no regrets. “It maybe just one elephant, but the amount of enthusiasm we drummed up showed that there are people who truly love these animals. We know that we aren’t alone in the battle to protect our elephants.”
Mr. Miththapala believes we need to weave stories around these animals and create an interest in the public. “They are icons of our wildlife and we cannot let them go to waste,” he says citing the example of the elephant with the longest tusks -Ahmed- of Kenya, who was declared a national treasure and had a 24-hour presidential guard kept on his safety at all times. “This country needs to realise the wealth of our wildlife and more importantly make the connection with the animals.”
One Tusk John from Minneriya, Gemunu from Yala, Road Blocker the famous highway robber at Minneriya, Sumedha and Rambo of Uda Walawe, Ivan the one-eyed leopard of Yala, Edward the semi-tame wild boar and Reverse, a notorious elephant who strolls right up to the jeeps, turns his back on them and smashes the buffer are well known to wildlife lovers.
“Visiting a park is not always about taking a few photos and coming back. You need to make the connection with the animal. Give it a name, give it a story, and it will always remain in your heart,” says Dimitri. The Miththapalas made a huge effort to find a lost legend. Their primary objective was not achieved, but they hope that more people will reach out and protect our precious wildlife.
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