Illegal captures: A serious threat to our elephants
The affinity between people and elephants has been an integral part of Asian civilisations. The elephant has been a prominent part of their cultural, economic and religious traditions. The ancient kings of Sri Lanka captured and tamed wild elephants, which used to abound in the country then. The human population was small and the elephants lived in large numbers in widespread habitats.
With time, the role of captive elephants has diminished and today it is largely limited to cultural and religious pageants and tourism. Wild populations of elephants have disappeared alarmingly across the 13 Asian countries that have elephants in the wild. Wild populations that are left have become fragmented and isolated. This has rendered the Asian elephant a globally threatened species. The demand for captive elephants continues in a number of Asian countries including Sri Lanka. This growing demand is a worrying trend that has shown an increase in the recent past.
Sri Lanka was thought to have a depleting number of captive elephants due to owners being averse to breeding their elephants. This is due to fear that the female would become weak during her 22-month pregnancy and not be able to work gainfully and it would be at least ten years before the newborn baby could be utilised for any effective income generating work. In addition, captures from the wild have been banned for decades.
The capture of elephants from the wild and taming them involves severe disruption of the wild herds, with much cruelty and a high death rate, since large numbers of captured babies die in the capture and taming process. In Sri Lanka, this was precipitated by the public outcry against wild captures consequent to the disastrous results of the last such major capture operation – the Panamure kraal in 1950. In Sri Lanka and most other Asian countries, captures have been banned, leading to the reduction of the wild herds. However, illegal captures have persisted.
A mandatory registration of all captive elephants by the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) was a major step towards the prevention of illegal captures and regulation of captive elephants. This decision was taken in 1995. Subsequently, additional efforts were made to strengthen the legislation and make it more effective. Currently, according to the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance, any person who owns, has in his custody or makes use of an elephant which is not registered, and a licence obtained in accordance with the provisions of this section, shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction be liable to a fine not less than Rs 100,000 and not more than Rs. 200,000 or to imprisonment for a term not less than two years and not exceeding five years or to both such fine and imprisonment.
The Department of Wildlife Conservation has made it mandatory for elephant owners to inform them when a she-elephant gets pregnant. The department has to be informed within seven days of a birth of an elephant calf. Virtually no such pregnancies of captive elephants have been recorded in Sri Lanka. However, a large number of calves, juveniles and young adults have appeared in captivity in the last few years, many with claimed registration by the Department of Wildlife Conservation. Whilst the legislation preventing illegal capture and regulating captive elephants is strong, it has fallen short of its goal due to non-implementation.
A new trend has surfaced in Sri Lanka, in the last few years, where gangs of poachers go into elephant habitats and possibly kill the mothers of selected baby elephants. In another method the poachers make a lot of noise, use firecrackers and bright lights to chase and disperse the herd. The babies are separated from their mothers in this confusion and are caught. The babies are then taken away to be tamed and used for the tourist trade, ceremonial occasions or kept as a symbol of prestige that accrues from owning an elephant.
Even highly placed officials are involved in this well organised, wide spread and lucrative captures and even in the ‘legalising’ of illegally captured baby elephants through fraud. There is an instance where a magistrate was accused of illegally possessing an elephant calf without a valid registration. On the filing of a complaint by a number of concerned environmental organisations and concerned individuals, the Deputy Auditor General conducted an investigation and according to the report dated July 22, 2014, all documents that have been submitted to the Department of Wildlife Conservation to get this elephant registered are fraudulent and the signatures of officials on the permit issued by the Department have been found to be forged.
In her evidence a Management Assistant at the Department has admitted that she had to prepare the fraudulent documents and number them on the instructions of her superiors. She has further stated that the documents pertaining to the elephant registration number 334 were inserted to the elephant registration book at the Department removing some other documents in the book. The audit report states, that “In the fraudulent application submitted on November 12, 2008, the height of the elephant calf was given as four feet and six inches and his age as three years.
However the Department, in the certificate of registration (given in 2012), too has given the animal’s height as same as in the application but only changed the age of the elephant to five years”. Although the Department gave the registration licence to the elephant calf in question on March 27, 2012, based on the fraudulent documents, in a letter dated October 26, 2012 the then Acting Director General, Department of Wildlife Conservation cancelled the licence of this elephant calf (registration number 334) claiming that the documents provided to obtain the registration were fraudulent thus ordering the owner to hand over the animal to the Department. However, this decision was reversed on January 21, 2013 by the current Director General.
Following this audit report on the investigation of illegal elephant registrations by the Department, the focus is now to see what action the relevant authorities would take in this matter. However, after this remarkable audit query was sent to the Secretary of the Ministry of Wildlife Resources on July 22, the Deputy Auditor General, who conducted the investigation, has been removed from all investigations he was conducting and was transferred to another section with fewer responsibilities.
A letter has been written to Sri Lanka’s President by 20 international conservation organisations from Britain, Germany, France and the United States, committed to the conservation and welfare of wildlife. They have expressed their deep concern about the growing illegal baby elephant trade in Sri Lanka and have asked the President to take urgent action to stop the capture of wild elephants and the public exhibition of elephants of questionable legal origin. The organisations have noted the global trend towards ethical tourism and expressed confidence that Sri Lanka, with its rich cultural and natural heritage, attracts visitors who value ethics and eco tourism alike.
The people’s concern for the conservation and welfare of animals, particularly of elephants, is increasing. Therefore, ensuring the protection of Sri Lankan elephants from capture and abuse, while safeguarding their continued existence in the wild, would play an important role not only in maintaining and strengthening the country’s tourism industry but also ensure the conservation of the elephants in the wilds of Sri Lanka.
Ensuring the survival of the Asian elephant in the wild requires continued vigilance and willingness of all stakeholders to confront and overcome challenges that are driving it towards extinction.
This article is based on an Editorial the writer contributed to Gajah # 40 (2014) (Journal of the Asian Elephant Specialist Group)