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Bridging a jumbo problem
By Lot Folgering
The pile of bananas on the back of his bike is so big that the rider is hardly visible. In the heat, this Sri Lankan farmer is bringing his produce to the local market. That is possible since a new bridge was built across the Kuda Oya in Uda Walawe.

Constructed with money that came from Amersfoort in Holland, the bridge was opened in January this year. “People can now take their harvest to the market. The children can go to school and patients to a doctor,” says Jayantha Jayewardene.

Jayewardene is Managing Trustee of the Biodiversity and Elephant Conservation Trust (BECT) and an authority on Asian elephants. Four years ago this Sri Lankan trust started a project with the Majro Hoedemaker Elephant Foundation from the Amersfoort Zoo. The Amersfoort Zoo set up this foundation in 2001 in recognition of Marjo Hoedemaker, manager and elephant keeper on completing forty years with the zoo.

Struggling against poverty, the villagers of Uda Walawe find nature in their way: the torrid sun, the rough jungle that has to make way for arable land, and the elephant, that –in search of water and food- leaves the park and comes to their villages. Located on the borders of the Uda Walawe National Park, six hundred families live in these villages. Children walk for 30 to 60 minutes to school every day.

In the last ten years more than a hundred families have suffered in incidents where elephants have damaged or destroyed their crops, mainly rice and cassava.

The Biodiversity and Elephant Conservation Trust and the Marjo Hoedemaker Elephant Foundation are now working to try to reduce the dependence of the farmers on agriculture for their income by training them in other fields and also finding markets for their other produce.

“If their dependence on agriculture for their income is reduced, they will be more tolerant towards the elephants. This would help our efforts at conserving the elephants,” says Jayewardene, explaining the main objective of their project.

In former times, the almost 400 elephants in the park were the undisputed masters of the area. It was no problem at all when they set ‘foot’ outside the national park: the jungle was everywhere. Today the animal has to share its habitat with the fast growing human population. When the elephants leave Uda Walawe they are immediately confronted with sugarcane plantations, army camps and villages.

In most cases male elephants come looking for food in the evening. The park is only partly surrounded by an electric fence. “Humans and elephants do not dislike each other. It’s just that the elephant doesn’t know any better and the humans –most of them already in debt- are not going to roll over and play dead when an elephant comes to destroy their crops,’’ explains Jayewardene.
“People now think of the elephant as a threat. What if we can convince the villagers of the fact that the elephant can be worth money to them,’’ says Marjo Hoedemaker.

That’s why Jayewardene made an inventory of what people near Uda Walawe needed. A bridge over the Kuda Oya was what the villagers desired most. The reason? During the high water season they were unable to go to market, school or a hospital. “ The bridge is of no direct effect on the lives of elephants,’’ admits Jayewardene, “but it is something that the villagers needed desperately and so we decided to build the bridge first.’’ Costing about Rs. 3,500,000, the bridge was completed in three months and was declared open in January of this year.

New projects for the well-being of the elephants and humans are in the pipeline, focusing on the creation of employment and income generation by furthering ecotourism. The villagers are enthusiastic. “Ever since we got together to build this bridge our sense of being a community has grown,’’ says a local farmer.

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