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Estate labour threatened as elephant-attacks intensify

Trampled!

Text and Pix by Tharuka Dissanaike

Their patience has been tried to the extreme. Night after night the estate workers huddled in cold fear as the elephants went on rampage, until, one day, someone's resolve cracked. A large quantity of acid was thrown at one elephant to drive it away from the line rooms. The acid scalded the elephant's back. Terribly wounded and in severe pain, it even drew murmurs of sympathy from the very people it threatened.

Not long afterwards Ammasi, 54, was killed on his way home after purchasing a packet of milk powder from the estate shop. His body was trampled and thrown into the tea bushes at Macaldeniya Upper Division in the Badulla district by another furious elephant.

Tears flow freely as his wife, Nonahamy recalls that terrible night. The two days that followed were worse. It took that long for the coroner and police to arrive at the scene and the body could not be moved from the tea bushes until then.

The very day Ammasi was laid to rest, a young man was attacked by the same elephant. Kalaiselvam, 18, is still suffering from the shock of being bodily lifted and thrown by the massive animal, so much so that he refuses to return home and now lives in Moneragala with relatives.

In February, two Assistant Superintendents of Poonagalla Estate were returning from Bandarawela late at night when they came across two lumbering black figures just outside the bungalow. Shehan Silva and Mohan Muthuraj were on a motorbike, which stalled when the shocked men realised the 'figures' were elephants.

Shehan tried to revive the bike as the jumbo's earth shattering trumpeting signalled a charge. Next he remembers, the young Assistant Superintendent was sprinting back to the road. The next day they found the motorbike, upside down in a ditch.

Such attacks are becoming an everyday occurrence at the Macaldeniya and Poonagalla tea estates. The still of the night is often punctuated by booming thunder flashes echoing against the steep mountainside. Morning brings with it stories of elephant vandalism during the night- the animals often breaking into home gardens and kitchens in search of scarce food.

At least 2000 estate labour and many villagers across the road from Koslanda-Gampaha come into daily confrontation with elephants. The problem is growing - as the elephants climb higher and higher into populated estates in search of food.

But the problem is not new. As far back as the seventies the lower reaches of the estates were seeing an occasional elephant or two, as the animals came upwards from the jungles beyond Koslanda and Gampaha.

During the last ten years the elephants have begun a steady upward climb. First it was Rosebury Estate, a rubber plantation, then Macaldeniya lower division, then higher, now to Mahakande and Poonagalla which are typical tea estates, some 4500 feet in elevation.

During the last ten years the elephants have become more destructive, breaking into home gardens and progressively becoming less frightened of crackers, thunder flashes and fire. The rogue elephants have grown adept at bringing down kitchen walls of line rooms to get at rice, coconut and salt stored within. As they climbed higher and food became scarcer and humans more hostile, the jumbos have retaliated by killing and attacking people and wantonly destroying property.

Two attempts were made to remove the elephants, believed to be a loosely knit group of around nine to eleven males. One was an unsuccessful drive in 1997 and a tranquilisation and capture last year, which was too difficult on the steep terrain.

Since then though the Department of Wildlife Conservation has proved totally inept at resolving the problem. The Department at one point said they would need helicopters to move these elephants. But Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, who oversees wildlife conservation, has consistently brushed aside the suggestion, maintaining that there must be more realistic and practical options.

Driving them to a lower point and then tranquillising or driving them down and attempting to tame and auction the elephants are some of the options the Ministry is looking into. But any urgency to cut through the red tape to resolve the problem is obviously not felt in the Department.

"The Wildlife Department has even failed to visit the site and reassure the people or advise them," said Dan Seevaratnam, Director Operations of Maskeliya Plantations, which employs a large part of the affected labour.

The problem which was confined to only two small estates three years ago, today has become a serious issue to larger, more important estates with bigger workforces.

This amply reflects the lethargic attitude of the Department. Not only are larger numbers of people affected but the elephants, who considered the estates a safe haven too, now face danger. The acid throwing incident was just a start. In self defence the labour may be forced to take harsher steps.

Workers at Macaldeniya, worst affected by the problem, have had enough. Their children cannot go to school and the sick cannot be transported at night. Many do not have a wink of sleep at night especially if an elephant has been spotted close by during the day. Some 16 houses have been demolished by elephants in Macaldeniya and almost every house has had repeated attacks.

Home gardens, which supplemented their meagre income, are destroyed. They want out. If the elephants are not going- they will move out.

"The mangement asks us to tolerate the elephants, bear with the situation. But our lives are threatened. We are helpless. We have not been compensated for the damage to our homes. What is the use of living like this?" Vadivel,49, said. His house has been broken three times and his nine year old son schools from a nearby estate.

Segar, 35, once earning an enviable income from cultivating an acre of land near his house by the Poonagalla swimming pool, is now living like a refugee in a garage of the estate. For years he battled with the elephants, not giving up his independent livelihood easily. But he lost.

"We have asked the workers to be patient and tolerant," said V. Johnpulle, Manager of Poonagalla Estate.

"We feel very helpless in this situation," Seevaratnam said. "All our official letters to the Department of Wildlife, Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake or Minister of Environment Nandamitra Ekanayake have gone without response. At least they should tell us what can be done in the short term until a permanent solution is found."

There is no question about it, Johnpulle said. "We want the elephants out- for good."

Selling their estates Planters Rajah Sithambaram and Lalith Nilaweera, both proprietary planters are worst hit. Nilaweera on Rosebury Estate across the Koslanda-Wellawaya road watched as elephants systematically tore through his rubber cultivation destroying acres in one night. Replanting has not been attempted since 1988 when 5000 young saplings were uprooted and trampled within a few days. In a few years Nilaweera will be effectively out of business. In a police entry in 1993, Nilaweera claims to have lost 25,000 trees in 125 acres, worth Rs. 2.5 million. Sithambaram, planting organic tea on the lower slopes of Macaldeniya has to deal with a disgruntled workforce. Whenever their houses are plundered, Sithambaram personally pays for the repair and replacing of the lost stock. But with his labour threatening to leave, his future looks dim. "In this area 650 coconut trees and 18 del trees have been lost to elephants, not to mention countless banana, jak, vegetable and other cultivations," Sithambaram said. "We used to do short term cash crops and exotic vegetables. Now, nothing." Both are considering selling off the properties.

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