2024-03-23 - Kegalle, Sri Lanka.
The 76th elephant calf was born at the Rambukkana Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage on March 20.This baby elephant was born to 32-year-old she-elephant Shanthi and 19-year-old Pandu at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. The Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage was started on February 16, 1975, with five baby elephants according to the concept of P.B.G.Kalugalla, who was a minister at that time. The first elephant born at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage was Sukumaliya, born on July 5, 1984 to she-elephant Kum...
2023-08-21 - Kataragama, Sri Lanka.
An individual who fed a poisoned watermelon to an elephant called “ Asela” of the Kataragama Abhinawarama temple was taken into custody by the Kataragama police on saturday. However, Veterinary Surgeon, Uva Wildlife Zone Dr.Ananda Dharmakirthi examined the elephant and confirmed that it was out of danger. Police arrested the suspect during investigations of the complaint received from Mahout Thushara Priyadarshana. He told police that the jumbo had developed a pain in mouth when biting the ...
2023-05-27 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
A team of veterinarians and experts will be sent to Sri Lanka next month to prepare for the return of Sak Surin, an ailing and ageing Thai elephant, to Thailand for medical treatment and physical rehabilitation. The team, which will visit from June 6-9, will be responsible for the elephant’s health to make sure it is ready for the journey home. sadi Jatuporn Burutphat, permanent secretary for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.He said the Department of National Parks, Wildli...
2022-09-23 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
‘Bandula’, the elephant found at the National Zoological Garden in Dehiwala is reported to have passed away today. According to reports, the elephant had suddenly fallen ill and had collapsed twice. Despite being treated by the veterinary doctors at the zoo, the elephant had passed away. The elephant was 79 years old at the time of its demise.
2022-04-01 - Kandy, Sri Lanka.
The chief tusker who represents this Sacred Temple is Indi Raja who is 45-years-old. The tuskers are Sinha Raja, Thai Raja, Jana Raja, Migara, Kaveri Raja, Myan Raja, Buruma Raja and Pulasthi Raja. The other elephants are Kandula, Nalaka and Kadhira. Our chief tusker Indi Raja was donated to the Dalada Maligawa in 1989 aged seven years. He was assigned for Perahera duty when he reached 18 years of age”. Indi Raja was donated by the late Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
2022-03-23 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Malaka Rodrigo
“We conducted a survey around Sri Lanka and listed 54 garbage open garbage dumps visited by elephants,” Chandana Sooriyabandara, director-general of Sri Lanka’s Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC), told Mongabay. “The department has nothing to do with the setting up of these garbage dumps, but we have to eventually deal with them as elephants frequent the dumps. We are trying to minimise the impact, but it is an uphill task as 70 per cent of Sri Lankan elephants can also be found o...
2022-03-07 - , Sri Lanka.
‘Nadungamuwa Raja’ the tusker which had carried the sacred relic casket of the Kandy Esala Perahera the most number of times, has died this morning at the age of 69 years. Nadungamuwa Raja, was a celebrated elephant towering around 10.5 feet (3.2 metres) in height, the tallest tamed tusker in Sri Lanka. He has carried the Sacred Tooth Relics Casket at the Esala Perahera for 12 years.
2021-12-06 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Dr. Nandana Atapattu, a former Director General of Wildlife and an expert on wild elephants has passed away. According to family sources, he had died at his residence in Purwarama Place, Kirulapone.Dr. Nandana Atapattu, has authored a number of research books on wild elephants in Sri Lanka.
2021-10-06 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Second Report of the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) for the First Session of the Ninth Parliament was presented to Parliament today (06) by its chairman, (Prof). Tissa Vitharana, Parliament Communications Department said. The report also focused on the current status of the Muthurajawela wetland and Human-Elephant Conflict, which had been a very controversial matter among the public. The committee report submitted to Parliament states that as a solution to the Human-Elephant Conflict, t...
2021-09-09 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Pamodi Waravita and Ruwani Fonseka
The Sri Lanka Podujana National Zoological Gardens Department Workers’ Union yesterday (9) claimed that National Zoological Gardens Department Director General (DG) Ishini Wickremesinghe has resigned as she is unhappy about a recent court order to release 14 elephants to their original “owners”. The Colombo Magistrate’s Court decision on 6 September directed 14 elephants under the charge of the National Zoological Gardens Department to be released to their original “owners” for regis...
2021-08-31 - Kegalle, Sri Lanka.
For the first time in Sri Lanka's history, twin baby elephants have been born at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. The twin calves were born to female elephant named 'Surangi'. Both calves are male. The first calf was born around 4.00am while the second was born around 12.00 noon. This is also said to be the first twin birth in Sri Lankan history among registered elephants in captivity.
2021-08-23 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Under the new regulations, logging elephants can only work up to four hours a day, while working at night is forbidden. They are also entitled to at least two-and-a-half hours of bathing time each day. The captive elephants must also undergo a mandatory health check-up every six months. Rule breakers could face a three-year prison sentence and have their elephants taken into state custody, reported AFP.
2021-08-12 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Department of Wildlife Conservation has recorded 219 jumbo deaths up to August 11 this year mainly from human-elephant conflict. During the same period, 89 people were killed in elephant attacks. A Senior Department official told The Island that 160 elephant deaths and 56 human deaths had been recorded during the same period in 2020. This is a 30% increase when compared with the 2005–2010 period. It is the highest annual death rate of elephants in the world.”
2021-04-13 - Udawalawe, Sri Lanka. Malaka Rodrigo
Earlier this month, more than 300 people gathered near the borders of the Dahaiyagala Wildlife Sanctuary in Sri Lanka’s Uva province armed with axes, long knives, ropes and handheld hoes called mamoties. Their apparent intention: Take control of sanctuary lands and expand their farms.
2021-03-25 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
83 wild elephants died so far in 2021, said the Secretary to the Ministry of Wildlife and Forest Conservation Somaratne Vidanapathirana at a media briefing on Wednesday. The Secretary said the deaths were caused by electrocution, shootings, various explosive material, falling into wells, train accidents, and natural causes.
2021-03-11 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Mahaweli Authority has said that 6150 hectares of land were given to the proposed Hambantota Wild Elephant Management Reserve. The Authority stated that 2250 hectares have been set aside for further development in the proposed reserve. “This land is extremely suitable for development,” Osmond De Silva, the Resident Project Manager of the Sri Lanka Mahaweli Authority said. It states that the relevant wild elephant management zone will be gazetted under the Wildlife Ordinance.
2021-03-09 - Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka.
A Sri Lankan Tusker Rewatha, named by Samagi Jana Balawegaya leader MP Sajith Premadasa, has been found dead. It has been reported that the Tusker found in the Balalu Wewa wildlife forest reserve in Kala Wewa, had died due to electrocution. The majestic Tusker of Sri Lanka is said to have been electrocuted by unauthorized electric fences set up for the protection of illegal farmlands within the forest reserve.
2021-01-26 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka’s Department of Wildlife Conservation will conduct an island-wide elephant census this year after a decade to determine the exact number of the animals in the country, local media reported on Monday. Secretary to the Ministry of Wildlife Conservation Bandula Harischandra said an elephant census was last conducted in 2011 and it was estimated that Sri Lanka had 5,179 tuskers, reports Xinhua news agency.
2021-01-19 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Pamodi Waravita
The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) would be conducting an investigation at the Horowpothana Elephant Holding Ground (HEHG) in July this year on the circumstances claimed in the National Audit Report for 2020. According to the report, although the HEHG was originally constructed to retain 30 rogue elephants as a solution to the human-elephant conflict, by 2019, 52 elephants had eventually been released to the ground. However, at the time the elephant census of the report was conducted ...
2021-01-18 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
On Monday (18) locals from Walsapugala, Hambantota decided to take to the streets demanding the Proposed Wild Elephant Management Reserve in Hambantota, be included in the government gazette. The Walsapugala village in Hambantota is a village in the frontlines of the Human-Elephant conflict, and for many years the people in this village have been living in fear for their lives.
2021-01-02 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Department of Wildlife Conservation has taken steps to use drone technology to chase away elephants; the pilot project of this initiative is currently underway in the Naula Rathgammana area in Matale, wildlife officials said on Saturday The pilot project is conducted together with the Sri Lanka Army Research Unit and Sri Lanka Navy, M.S.R.C. Marasinghe, the Director of Operations at the Department of Wildlife Conservation told News 1st.
2020-12-10 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka has earned the dubious ranking as the country where the largest number of Elephants are killed because of the Human-Elephant conflict, a Parliamentary Committee has heard as evidence of an increase in the intensity of the conflict was presented by experts. This country is also ranked number two globally where humans have died in conflict with wild Elephants, testimony led before the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) heard according to a statement released by the Parliament’s Office...
2020-11-06 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The research team observed that the last elephant birth in captivity was recorded in 1994. “However, the report submitted to the Magistrate’s Court by the Wildlife Conservation Department (DWC) Director General on July 9, 2015 stated that 37 applications had been submitted for registration of elephant calves born in captivity during the period of 2000 to 2015. This raises a serious suspicion about the origin of these 37 elephant calves,” the report said.
2020-10-02 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Siddharthya Roy and Judy Isacoff
The rate of human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka has increased exponentially in recent years. The highest number of human-elephant conflicts since 1948 was recorded in 2019, with 405 elephants and 121 humans reported dead, ,” said Sajeewa Chamikara, a member of the Movement for Land and Agricultural Reform, a nongovernment organization.
2020-10-01 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Benjamin VanHoose
Photographer Tharmaplan Tilaxan of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, captured a series of snapshots that document the large wild animals sifting through an open-area landfill located next to a nearby jungle.
2020-09-30 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
At the Parliament session held today (25), Minister of Tourism, Prasanna Ranatunga has said that the elephant population at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage has exceeded its capacity and its revenue has also dropped significantly in the recent past
2020-09-27 - Mahaveli, Sri Lanka. Chanaka Bandarage
Mahaveli Development Program is a national development program of Sri Lanka with irrigation development of about 365,000 hectares of land and development of hydro power. Thanks to the accelerated Mahaveli Program, the human – elephant conflict took an adverse upturn. It is estimated that over 256,000 hectares of virgin forest lands became Mahaveli land.
2020-09-26 - Pinnawala, Sri Lanka.
The Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage was facing a risk of being blacklisted for tourists due to various reasons including the overcrowding of the orphanage, and Bottle feeding was stopped as it was not good to give the baby elephants artificial milk. Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunge said.
2020-09-17 - Uda Walawe, Sri Lanka. Srilal Mithapala
There is reliable information coming through that the iconic elephant of Uda Walawe, Rambo, may be captured and translocated to a holding ground by the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC). (political and biased article)
2020-09-16 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
After the rare sighting of twin elephant calves in Sri Lanka in July 2020, misleading claims and old photographs have circulated on Facebook. Some posts falsely claim the Sri Lankan pair were the first twin baby elephants born in South Asia. Other posts share images of elephants in South Africa, misrepresenting them as recent photos of the new baby elephants.
2020-09-07 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Naveed Rozais
Under the formation of the new Government in 2020, it has been announced that the Department of Zoological Gardens will now fall under the Ministry of Tourism, causing concern among animal rights activists across the country with regard to the welfare of the 100 elephants and many other zoo animals in the care of the Department.
2020-09-06 - Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka.
Polonnaruwa wildlife officials have rescued a baby elephant that had fallen into a muddy swamp at Divulana Villuwa, Polonnaruwa. The victim was a one-year-old male about 4 feet tall.After a five hour operation, wildlife officials have released the baby elephant to the herd.
2020-07-09 - Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka. Erika P.
On Wednesday, July 8, a pair of baby elephants were spotted in the Sri Lankan national park, and officials speculate that they are a rare set of twins. They estimate that the young tuskers are three to four weeks old, feeding from the same mother which led experts to believe that they are twins.
2019-09-25 - Kegalle, Sri Lanka.
An emaciated 70-year-old elephant that caused a social media outcry after being forced to take part in an annual Buddhist pageant in Sri Lanka has died, officials said Wednesday. The government has ordered an autopsy for Tikiri, a domesticated Asian elephant that died Tuesday night in Kegalle, 80 kilometres (50 miles) east of the capital Colombo, a wildlife department official said.
2016-11-27 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Many have expressed concern over the government’s move to return the baby elephants to individuals who allegedly had illegal permits or none at all. Several environmental lawyers claimed the move to return the elephants to the suspects was at fault since the court is yet to arrive at a final decision on the matter and it still remains a pending case.
2016-11-24 - , Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka unveiled tougher laws Wednesday, including a ban on using young elephants for logging and other physical work, as part of a crackdown on cruelty to domesticated wild animals. Wildlife Minister Gamini Jayawickrama Perera said the cabinet approved new regulations imposing tough conditions on owners of elephants, which are considered sacred by Buddhists in Sri Lanka. The animals are also legally protected but are often subjected to cruel treatment by some owners.
2016-11-03 - Hambegamuwa, Sri Lanka.
Residents and wildlife officials have released a baby elephant that was tied to a tree in Hambegamuwa area. Residents who saw this elephant has informed the wildlife officials in the area.
2016-11-01 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Capturing wild elephants has been banned for decades here. Registration records indicate there should be only 127 elephants in captivity, most of them older. Yet they are a staple of the South Asian island nation´s 400 or so yearly processions — traditional ceremonies honoring a marriage, calling for peace or praying for rain — and in each there are always a few young elephants clumsily cantering to keep up.
2016-10-18 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Unlike African elephants that are characterized by strong matriarch-led, unified families, Asian elephant families appear to be less cohesive and seem to lack clear matriarch-leadership, the study found. The researchers found that Asian elephants showed such little dominance behavior that it was almost impossible to construct linear hierarchies among individuals.
2016-10-09 - , Sri Lanka.
Poaching and loss of habitat have caused tuskers to become an increasingly rare sight in Sri Lanka’s jungles. Wildlife officers on Sunday had to treat a tusker with a unique condition The Galgamuwa tusker has earned the name “Dalapoottuwa†because of the entanglement of its tusks.The tusker which usually roams around the jungles of Galgamuwa, makes an annual migration to the Kala Wewa via Kekirawa. Last year, wildlife officers had to treat the tus...
2016-08-20 - Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. University of Kelaniya
The conference is meant to cover every aspect of Asian Elephants and aims for a compendium of research papers to be published along with the conference. We welcome research papers on following themes and any other aspect related to Asian Elephants.
2016-03-31 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Attorney General yesterday informed Court that 38 illegally caught wild elephant were taken into the Wildlife Department custody following the CID investigation into a massive racket where illegally caught wild elephant calves being sold to third parties.
2015-11-20 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Chamath Keppitiyagama of the University of Colombo is working on a radar system that listens out for the inaudible rumbles of elephants’ infrasound, something that was discovered in the 1980s. Infrasound is useful for locating and tracking elephants over long distances – the low frequency means the sounds travel a long way through the air.
2015-11-17 - Uda Walawe, Sri Lanka.
In August 2015, one of our frequently sighted females in Uda Walawe named Indika was seen suckling two calves of different ages on either sides of her. The younger male calf Indika was nursing was about three months old and merely skin and bones. He was obviously malnourished and weak. She already had a rounded and bulky belly suggesting another calf was on her way.
2015-04-20 - Pinnawala, Sri Lanka.
The Zoological Department in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism and Sports took the initiative of expediting the construction work of the Open Air Zoo in Pinnawala. It has come up in adjacent to the Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala. The public will be given the opportunity of visiting this Zoo free of charge from today until the 01st of next month. It spans 44 acres. The Open Air Zoo has been mainly built on behalf of animals endemic to the country. Zoological Director Anura De Silva said...
2015-04-12 - Kegalle, Sri Lanka. Kumudini Hettiarachchi
Reiterating that elephants are an endangered species, Mr. Samarasinghe is quick to point out that the illegal capture of baby elephants from the wild began after 1994, with powerful people including politicians of the then regime keeping them hidden. “Gradually, in the last two to three years it became a huge business,†he laments, stressing that people need to understand the gravity of capturing a baby elephant when it is still suckling. Both the mother and the baby are traumatised.
2015-04-09 - Oruwala, Sri Lanka.
The elephant calf which was taken into custody of the wildlife officers in the Oruwala area in Athurugiriya recently was presented before the Kaduwela Magistrate on the night of Monday April 6. The magistrate ordered for the elephant calf to be transferred to the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. The Kaduwela Magistrate also ordered the release of the two mahouts on bail.
2014-08-01 - Kandy, Sri Lanka.
The most popular and colourful festival in Sri Lanka, Kandy Perahera is celebrated once a year usually in August. Dates for Kandy Perahera 2014 will be from 01st to the 11th of August 2014.
2014-05-03 - Udawalawe, Sri Lanka.
Wildlife Director General W.B. Rathnayake says that he will hold an investigation with regard to the attempt of poaching an elephant calf from the Uda-Walawa Sanctuary yesterday afternoon. Later Wildlife officers have chased after the poachers, and the poachers have fired gun shots at wildlife officers. However wildlife officers found the calf elephant after it was abandoned by its poachers in a nearby shrub jungle.
2014-05-02 - Udawalawe, Sri Lanka.
Some gangsters who had allegedly attempted to remove an elephant calf from the Udawalawe National Park on Thursday and transport it by a tractor were intercepted by the wildlife officers and the residents. When their motives came to light they had fled leaving the calf behind. Residents in the area believe that his high handed act of piracy was attempted with state patronage.
2014-02-02 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Minister of Wildlife Resources Conservation Wijith Wijayamuni Zoysa defended the Government’s practice of gifting baby elephants to various parties, stating criticism of the action was unwarranted. Speaking to The Nation, the minister brushed aside criticism leveled by environmentalists, claiming the Government ‘will not be dictated by environmentalists.
2014-01-30 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday gifted two baby elephants to the Sri Lanka Army and the Police. Three and a half year old ‘Kandula’ was handed over to the Army and four and half year old ‘Abeetha’ to the Police. The baby elephants donated by the Department of Wildlife will be used at ceremonial occassions by the Army and the Police.
2013-12-20 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Biologists in Sri Lanka have published the first documented evidence of dwarfism in an adult wild animal. A male Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) measuring just over 1.5 meters (five feet) in height was seen in an aggressive encounter with another male of average size, according to the findings published in the IUCN/SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group journal Gajah.
2013-12-04 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Environmentalists have responded with alarm to a proposed amnesty permitting the registration of illegally captured elephants in Sri Lanka. Recent reports in Sri Lankan media have outlined the proposal, stating that during the amnesty period it would be possible to register elephant calves for a fee of about $7,600.
2013-11-25 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Three adult elephants and one baby elephant were found dead in the Hadilla area of Gannoruwa in Hamabntota in southern Sri Lanka. The elephants were killed when they got caught in an illegally set up electric fence in a private land, local media reported. The Wildlife Department has commenced an investigation in to the incident.
2013-11-01 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Srilal Miththapala
Charles Santiapillai, recently penned an article about the perpetrated suggestion to cull Sri Lankan elephants; this has caused considerable concern and debate among a wide cross section of people. Firstly,one must establish the context in which this statement was supposed to have been made, by the eminent Indian Elephant Expert Ajay Desai during a recent lecture in Sri Lanka.
2013-10-26 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Charles Santiapillai & S. Wijeyamohan
In 2012, a total of 252 elephant deaths were reported from Sri Lanka. In the same year, 66 people were killed by wild elephants. Thus it appears that in Sri Lanka, annually about 100 to 120 animals may be killed deliberately in the human-elephant conflict. The pocketed elephants can be captured and relocated to other Range States so that they can still live in the wild, and a few could even be maintained in well managed zoological gardens and safari parks. Thus culling of elephants is not an opt...
2013-10-25 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Malaka Rodrigo
Considering all these failed options Mr. Desai said there was a fourth option—the difficult choice of culling these elephants in ‘troubled’ spots. He said this method was cost effective and would even have conservation gains such as using funds to conserve other viable elephant populations. It would also bring a quick end to these elephants instead of a slow lingering death which is what actually awaits them or a life time in captivity and death in the end.
2013-10-25 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Twenty-four elephants lined up for a race Thursday on Sri Lanka´s newest expressway, but thousands of spectators were left disappointed when organisers scrapped the event due to safety concerns. The animals and jockeys were jostling at the start line on the Chinese-built 25.8-kilometre (16 mile) four-lane expressway from the airport to the capital when authorities had a sudden change of heart. Police felt that the tuskers could pose a threat to the safety of spectators if one of them went ...
2013-09-08 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Environmentalists have warned that the amnesty period for those who rear elephants illegally to register them, will have far-reaching consequences as it will promote elephant poaching. The Environment Conservation Trust has highlighted that relaxing laws on illegally domesticated elephants will encourage poachers to pry on baby elephants, and would run contrary to the Ministry’s good intentions.
2013-08-27 - Uda Walawe, Sri Lanka.
It was about 10-15 years ago that a big bull elephant was sighted regularly along the electric fence bordering the Thanamalwila Road that runs adjacent to the Uda Walawe National Park ( UWNP) and he was named Rambo. While certainly everyone will hope and pray that we are all proved wrong, the prognosis is not good, and all logical evidence indicates that Rambo may be no more in the land of the living.
2013-06-04 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
A ceremony to hand over a baby tusker gifted by the Government of Myanmar to the Bellanwila Rajamahavihara in Sri Lanka took place Tuesday in the presence of the External Affairs Minister Professor G.L. Peiris. The Minister expressed Sri Lanka´s appreciation to the government of Myanmar for its support.
2013-04-28 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Wildlife and Nature Protection Society of Sri Lanka organized a lecture on April 19, regarding a survey of elephants of Sri Lanka. Dr Charles Santiapillai and S Wijeyamohan addressed the audience.The survey was carried out by the Department of Wildlife Conservation on August 11, 12 and 13, 2011. The lecture highlighted the nature of the survey, and stressed on the difference between a survey and a census.
2013-04-10 - Pinnawala, Sri Lanka.
A New Year oil anointing ceremony will be held at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage on April 15 at 6.42 a.m. to anoint oil on nearly 100 elephants maintained at the facility. Sabargamuwa Chief Minister Maheepala Herath and Kanaka Herath will be chief guests. The Rambakenpura Surya Mangalyaya to mark Sinhala and Hindu New Year will follow at the near-by Bathambure playground.
2013-03-19 - Pinnawala, Sri Lanka.
The Pinnawala Zoological Gardens, being constructed in close proximity to the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, is being readied for an end 2013 opening. An extent of 44 acres has been set apart for the zoo, the first phase of which is to be completed and opened during the course of this year, at a cost of Rs 577 million. Already, the inner road systems, employees´ quarters, a public restaurant and provision of water and electricity facilities have been completed.
2013-03-11 - Pinnawala, Sri Lanka.
Zoological Director Anura de Silva said that the income earned from the Pinnawala Orphanage last year was 483 million rupees. He pointed that out of this amount the sum earned from foreign tourists alone was in the region of 455 million rupees. This is a record income earned when compare with the figures in the year 2011.
2013-01-13 - Pinnawala, Sri Lanka.
The blind elephant ´ Pinnawala Raja´ who was ill for a long time passed away yesterday at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage,reports said. He went blind following an attack by a hunter at Galenbindunuwewa and was taken to Pinnawala, treated for injuries and cured. Claimed to be 70 years at the time of death.
2012-12-12 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Wildlife Department authorities will have discussions with the public at workshops to solve the human-elephant conflict, Wildlife Director General H D Rathnayake said. He said according to the National Elephant Conservation Policy, the Authority activates action plans to prevent the human-elephant conflict. "Under this programme, the department will identify practical and relevant steps which could be used to prevent the conflict between elephants and humans," Rathnayake said. ...
2012-12-09 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
After monitoring a dozen bull Asian elephants in Sri Lanka that were transferred—three of them multiple times—to national parks, researchers have concluded that relocation neither reduces human-elephant conflicts nor helps conservation efforts. Indeed, five of the translocated elephants ended up being killed within 8 months of their release, and the elephants killed five people.
2012-11-13 - Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. Yasaratne Gamage
Wild life officials in Anuradhapura have commenced investigations into the death of two jumbos, a tusker found dead in Koongollwewa, Medawachchiya and another, poisoned in Herathgama, Kurunegala. They also found another adolescent elephant, seriously wounded by a trap gun in Kalagama, Galkiriyagama. The carcass of the huge tusker with its tusks removed was found in a jungle in Koongollewa, Medawachchiya by the Wild Life rangers attached to Vavuniya on Monday following information received from a...
2012-11-06 - Uda Walawe, Sri Lanka.
Feeding of begging wild elephants in Sri Lanka´s Udawalawe National Park, can be made safer for both man and animal if it is formalized as a supervised process, where fees are charged, a wildlife enthusiast has suggested. S M S Senadhipathi, a wildlife enthusiast says though elephants lining up for food along an electrified fence at the national park has become an iconic sight "it is an eye sore and a serious risk to animals and people."
2012-10-21 - Pinnawala, Sri Lanka. Pix and video by Wasantha Chandrapala
A wild elephant, known as ´Kora Aliya´ that has turned a great threat to the safety of residents in several villages of the Ampara district was tranquilized by Wildlife Department officials this morning in order to be transported to Pinnawala, after running rampant in the villages of Kunduwatuwana, Paragahakale and Inidurawa, incurring great losses to the crops in the areas.
2012-10-06 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Prague zoo deputy director Jaroslav Simek said it is a unique project that will largely help extend the genetic base of the European breeding of Indian elephants. The elephants, eight-year-old Janita and seven-year-old Tamara, come from the elephant zoo in Pinnawale. "The Hercules C-130 with them is to take off on Saturday at 01:00 the local time," Bobek, who is staying in Colombo, said.
2012-08-29 - Pinnawala, Sri Lanka.
It has been decided to gift two baby elephants from the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage to the Tama Zoo in Japan. The names of these two baby elephants are ‘Amara’ and ‘Vidula’. The two baby elephants would be a donation to the Japanese Government, said the Director General of National Zoological Department, Anura De Silva. These two baby elephants would be officially donated to Japan during the President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s upcoming state tour in Japan in October, he further added.
2012-07-31 - Kandy, Sri Lanka.
Kishinchand Chadiram Thadhani has been dressing elephants for 47 years. He is the official outfitter to the elephants taking part in one of Buddhism’s most significant festivals; the Kandy Esala Perahera in Sri Lanka. The 10-day parade centered on Kandy’s Sri Dalada Maligawa, the Temple of the Tooth Relic, ends Thursday.
2012-06-10 - Pinnawela, Sri Lanka.
15 baby elephants born at Sri Lanka’s biggest elephant orphanage were christened in a mass service today. The 15 babies were named: Singithi, Ahinsa, Themiya, Wanamali, Nandi, Mangala, Annuththara, Jeevaka, Kadol, Isira, Bimuthi, Aithi, Gagana and foreign favourites Trinky and Elvina.
2012-04-15 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Lightning during heavy showers has been suspected as the cause for the death of a temple tusker in Sri Lanka. The 24-year-old elephant named ´Lanka belonging to the Kotte Rajamaha Viahara was found dead Saturday morning in the Ingiriya area in the Kalutara district. According to Ingiriya Police, the elephant has been brought to the area to take part in a New Year festival and was left tethered to a tree in a two-acre filed.
2012-02-11 - Uda Walawe, Sri Lanka.
Few people realize that Asian and African elephants are about as different from one another as we are from chimpanzees. That’s not an exaggeration – the estimated time that they diverged from a common ancestor is about six million years ago, whereas humans and chimpanzees are estimated to have diverged between five to six million years ago [2]. Some have even suggested that Asian elephants may be more closely related to woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius).
2012-02-06 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Navam Perahera, held annualy in February, displays hundreds of monks, sacred relics housed in a casket are carried by a majestic elephant on its back, dancers, drummers, and many elephants also displays the rich religious and cultural tradition of Sri Lanka.
2012-02-02 - Pinnawala, Sri Lanka. Dan Koehl
Sri Lanka is an island with a land area of approximately 62,000 km2 situated in the Indian Ocean, 35 km from the southern end of the Indian Peninsula. The first-ever nationwide elephant census in August 2011 produced a total of 7,379 jumbos across the island: 5,879 of them were spotted near parks and sanctuaries, while another 1,500 were estimated to be living in other areas.
2012-02-01 - Pinnawala, Sri Lanka. Dan Koehl
Some notes about history of captive elephant breeding 1875-2011. The 20 most succesful captive elephant breeders. Thoughts for the future regarding subspecies, and a last hope for the elephants of Vietnam.
2012-01-21 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Malaka Rodrigo
Feeding wild elephants and enticing them with homemade bites or fast-food leftovers is encouraging a bad and potentially lethal habit – potentially lethal to the humans who tempt the wild animals, who might the next moment turn on them, and lethal to the animal who will probably have to be put down if it took a human life. Local visitors and tourists are unwittingly encouraging a potentially lethal habit when they feed wild elephants.
2012-01-17 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Plans to translocate elephants in Sri Lanka have been scrapped - to the delight of the Sri Lanka Conservation Society (SLCS). However, the charity remains concerned about how the country´s elephant population is to be managed amid intensifying human-elephnt conflict on the island. President Ravi Corea said: There seems to be no definite plans as to how the current populations of elephants in Sri Lanka will be managed over the long term.
2012-01-16 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Kumudini Hettiarachchi
It was a double tragedy – the bullets not only killed the cow-elephant but also the unborn baby she was carrying at Demaliya, close to the northern boundary of the Lunugamvehera National Park last Wednesday. Gunned down by a home-made shot-gun, within an area cleared for chena cultivations, when officials of the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) rushed to the area on information received from the villagers , the cow elephant with severe gunshot injuries to the head was already dead, th...
2012-01-10 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Among the places they visited in Sri Lanka was the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. Pinnawala officials feclicitated the visit with the planting of a tree. Eco and wild life tourism expert Sri Lal Miththapala guided the VIPs around on the invitation of the tourism authorities. “Such high profile visits are welcome at a time we are trying to reach out to high end tourists,” said the Acting Sri Lanka Tourism Director General Vipula Wanigasekera.
2012-01-08 - Pinnawela, Sri Lanka.
The Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala whas recorded the highest number of elephant births in 2011, according to the statistics of the Department of National Zoological Gardens. During the year, 15 elephant calves were born and nine of them were males. Last year 2,438,541 foreigners visited the Orphanage. A total of 4,612,631 local and foreign tourists have visited the National Zoological Gardens, Dehiwala and the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage.
2012-01-08 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Department of National Zoological Gardens has earned Rs. 651 million last year, the highest on record. The income came from earnings from the Dehiwala Zoo (Rs. 163 million), Elephant Orphanage, Pinnawela (Rs 487 million) and Rs.16 million from other sources. More than 1. 6 million locals and 20,000 had visited the Dehiwela Zoo in 2011 while around 400,000 locals and around 2.4 million foreigners had had visited the elephant orphanage, the Government’s news web site said.
2011-12-30 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Disna MUDALIGE
Work on four elephant conservation sites planned in selected areas to control the human-elephant conflict would be completed within the next year, Wildlife Conservation Department director general H D Ratnayake told the Daily News yesterday. He said that the centre in Veheragala has been completed, while the construction of the three other centres in Horowpathana, Maduru Oya and Galgamuwa will be completed within the next year using the budgetary allocation of Rs 100 million.
2011-11-26 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Holding grounds will be the most effective way to address the problem, he said. President Rajapaksa has approved building four elephant holding grounds in Lunugamwehera, Horowpathana, Maduru Oya and Palukadawa Galgamuwa areas where wildlife and people overlap as a means to reduce the conflict. President has allocated Rs 400 million for Wildlife and Agrarian Ministry to carry out these projects.
2011-11-13 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Kumudini Hettiarachchi
One is dead and will more follow, for three elephants have been mowed down by the Colombo Fort-Omanthai mail train at the 97.5 milepost between Galgamuwa and Ambanpola at about 3 a.m. last Tuesday. Ironically this is not the first but the third time that elephants have been knocked down at the same location. It was in June this year that three gentle giants died an agonising death after being hit by a special train carrying Poson pilgrims. A few years prior to that another three were killed prac...
2011-09-28 - Yala, Sri Lanka.
Several villagers including Minipuragama, Buruthagola, Helagama and Pahalagama are facing the threat of wild elephants and people in more than 1000 families are living in constant fear. They pointed out that a herd of about 30 wild elephants from the Yala National Park roam into the villages at dusk and destroy home garden crops, chena cultivations, paddy fields and chase after people.
2011-09-26 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Gazala Anver
Several months ago, reliable sources informed The Sunday Leader that several baby elephants had been taken from the wild and kept at temples around the country. Investigations were conducted in April and three baby elephants were traced to Dewram Vehara in Pannipitiya and the Vipashyarama Purana Vihara, Maharagama.
2011-09-26 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Dhaneshi YATAWARA
Following several rounds of discussion Railway officials together with Wildlife Conservation Authorities will impose speed limits for trains on certain areas on the Northern and Eastern railway track, Wildlife and Agrarian Services Minister S.M. Chandrasena said. "According to the talks we had with Railway officials, the trains need to limit their speed in areas where elephants cross the railway track," Minister Chandrasena told the ´Sunday Observer´. According to the Wildlife Conser...
2011-09-15 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Government spokesman and Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said Thursday that the Cabinet has approved a proposal presented by the Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne to donate the baby elephant from the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage to the Manila zoo. In addition, Sri Lankan Embassy in Philippines has organized a series of events to mark the golden jubilee celebrations to be held in Manila on the 3rd week of September.
2011-08-22 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Dhaneshi YATAWARA
The results of the first ever National Elephant Survey is currently undergoing a close scrutiny at the Statistics Department of the Peradeniya University. The Department of Wildlife Conservation expects to issue an interim report as the initial step and later a complete survey.
2011-08-13 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
An elephant calf has died in Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage on the 9th. The calf had been born on 16th January to the she elephant called ‘Lasanda.’ However, this elephant mother had been separated from its calf on a request by the President and was offered to Vishnu Temple at Devinuwara.
2011-08-11 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Tharindu Muthukumarana
The world famous Millangoda Raja has passed away, leaving us the sweet memories that we had of the great tusker. Millangoda Raja was known as a tusker, had the longest tusks in the whole of Asia. The beauty of the tusker was such that it was featured in the covers of several books about elephants. The death of Millangoda Raja was a natural death. The teeth of the elephant had worn out and it could only swallow little amounts of food at a time. This sort of old aged death comes to wild elephants,...
2011-08-11 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Wildlife groups in Sri Lanka are threatening to boycott the country´s first national survey of wild elephants after a minister said it would be used to identify animals for use at temples. A dozen privately-run wildlife organisations on Tuesday pulled out their volunteers on the eve of the survey which aims to count the number of animals across all of the formerly war-torn island´s national parks for the first time.
2011-07-31 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Malaka Rodrigo
Residents of the area blocked Palagala junction last week, demanding a solution for their Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC) issue. About 1,500 villagers gathered at this junction on July 20, protesting the death in the last two months of 7 villagers killed by elephants, according to media reports. Traffic from Kekirawa, Galewela and Mahawa was blocked, causing severe inconvenience to the public. The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) had to assure the villagers that they would relocate the tr...
2011-07-27 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Corroborating previous studies of this and other Asian elephant populations, we find that the sizes of elephant groups observed in the field on any particular day are typically small and that rates of association are low. In contrast to earlier studies, our longitudinal observations reveal that individuals form larger social units that can be remarkably stable across years while associations among such units change across seasons.
2011-07-19 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Tharindu Muthukumarana
The death of this majestic tusker was a tear jerking story for most Sri Lankans. This is not the first time when a death of an elephant became a story much talked about through out Sri Lanka. The tusker passed away on Friday 8, 2011, at about 7 am. Navam Raja was an attractive part of the Navam Prerahera. Raja meaning the king in both Sinhala and Tamil languages became the lead elephant to take part in the Gangarama Navam Perahera.
2011-06-07 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Two ˜holding grounds to relocate problematic elephants will be completed by the end of the year in a bid to resolve the long-standing human-elephant conflict in the country, the Wildlife Department said yesterday. Wildlife Department Director Dr. Chandrawansa Pathiraja told the Daily Mirror that the construction process of two holding grounds in Lunugamwehera and Horowpathana would be launched in the coming weeks.
2011-06-05 - Kandy, Sri Lanka. Gandhya Senanayake & Karunarathna Athukorala
A baby elephant had drowned at the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage Saturday evening, officials said. It drowned after the foot of the baby reportedly got trapped in stones in the area which led to the drowning in the Ma-Oya, they said. Senior Assistant Director Renuka Bandaranayke told Daily Mirror Online that the body of baby elephant had been sent to the Veterinary faculty of the Peradeniya University for the postmortem and that they were waiting for the autopsy report. A police and administrati...
2011-05-16 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Gazala Anver
The gentle giants, inextricably linked to the history and culture of our country, have for generations been hunted and sold for their ivory or as symbols of prestige. It has come to such a point now, that there are very few tame elephants left and the price for them is sky high, as near as a million rupees per elephant.
2011-05-11 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
There was panic for a moment along the main road in Rajagiriya yesterday morning when an elephant ran amok near the Welikada police station after its caretaker lost control of the elephant. However, the animal was brought under control after some time. According to the caretaker the elephant that was brought to Sri Lanka from Myanmar some time ago was being taken from the Kotte Raja Maha Viharaya to the Defence Ministry for a function when it got disturbed and ran amok.
2011-04-22 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Dehiwala National Zoological Gardens has organized a best video clip competition for visitors from April 8 to 22 for the New Year school vacation, Director General Bashwara Senanka Gunaratne told the Daily News. A tame, juvenile elephant will be brought to the zoo from the Pinnawala elephant orphanage on April 22. People will be allowed to view these animals from 3 pm onwards on this day, he explained. Gunaratne requested the public to visit the zoo during their vacation and participate in t...
2011-04-05 - Vavuniya, Sri Lanka.
Two elephants have sustained injuries in between the Seelawathura and Mollikulama areas, after being caught to a landmine. The Vavuniya Wild Life office said that the injured animals are being treated for these injuries sustained recently. Officers of the army detachment in the area had informed the wild life office in Vavuniya, after stumbling upon the injured elephants.
2011-04-04 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Disna Mudalige
The Wildlife Conservation Department has decided to do away with elephant translocation with immediate effect considering the negative impact it has caused to both humans and elephants, a spokesperson of the Department told the Daily News yesterday. She said that previous translocation attempts had proved to be unsuccessful. "The elephants had somehow tried to find a route to go back to their previous location. Translocation can affect the behaviour of the elephants. In return they become aggres...
2011-04-03 - Sinharaja, Sri Lanka. Srilal Miththapala
It is a known fact that wild elephants were found in most parts of Sri Lanka during the early 1900’s. However, with the rapid development of the South and South West regions, they gradually moved towards the Central, South Eastern and North Eastern regions. With the rapid development of the tea plantations, the elephants living in the central hills also moved away into the central East or were decimated in the course of development.
2011-03-19 - , Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka Ministry of Wildlife says that a new interim elephant orphanage is being constructed in the North Central Province. The new orphanage for wild elephants is in Ulankulama along the A-12 highway from Puttalam to Trincomalee. The Ulankulama orphanage is also expected to be a tourist attraction probably from July this year, says Minister Chandrasena.
2011-03-18 - Rambukkana, Sri Lanka. Oswald Godakumbura
The Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage yesterday recorded the 59th birth. Menika gave birth to her third baby and it is in good health, sources from the Orphanage told the Daily News. She gave birth in 2001 and 2005 and they have been named Migara and Mihiri. The number of jumbos at the orphanage rose to 91 with the birth of the latest entry. Nine elephants were born at the orphanage this month alone and they would be christened by the orphanage later this month, sources told the Daily News.
2011-02-09 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
More than 72 wild elephants have been detected marooned in the flood affected areas in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, Director General of Wildlife Conservation Department, Chandrawansa Pathiraja said. He added that 70 out of them were stranded in Manik Farm and Settikulam areas in Vavuniya. Two elephant calves have been detected in Singhapura area in Welikanda, and measures have already been taken to rescue those two, the Director General said.
2011-01-30 - Pinnawela, Sri Lanka.
Three more mahouts of the Pinnawela Elephant Sanctuary who were investigated regarding the death of an elephant who died under tragic circumstances, allegedly due to injuries caused by its caretakers’ spear were interdicted. Several mahouts, an Animal Protection Officer was suspended while the Assistant Director of the Orphanage was transferred following the death of the elephant at the orphanage, Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage Director S. Gunaratne said. A total number of nine personnel ...
2011-01-21 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Chamikara Weerasinghe
The Government has allocated nearly Rs 300 million to put up elephant fences in areas where the human-elephant conflict is deemed severe, Agrarian Services and Wildlife Minister S M Chandrasena said yesterday. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has reportedly instructed Minister Chandrasena to fully activate the safety and protection systems in all National Parks.
2011-01-17 - Pinnawela, Sri Lanka. Karunaratne Atukorala
An elephant at the Pinnawela elephant orphanage died under tragic circumstances, allegedly due to injuries caused by its caretakers’ spear, an official said today. Two mahouts and an Animal Protection Officer at the Orphanage were suspended from service following the death of the elephant at the orphanage, Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage Director S. Gunaratne said
2010-12-25 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka Department of Wildlife has decided to conduct an island wide survey to take census on wild elephants. The Minister of Agrarian Services and Wildlife, S.M. Chandrasena says that he has directed the officials of the Department to conduct the survey in August next year.
2010-12-11 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka Minister of Wildlife and Peasants Services S.M. Chandrasena says that 5,000 personnel of Civil Defense Force will be deployed to prevent man-elephant conflicts. The Civil Defense Force personnel will assist the Wildlife officials to protect the elephant population as well as the crops of the farmers.
2010-12-08 - Pinnawala, Sri Lanka.
A baby elephant that had roamed away from its herd was found lying exhausted in a paddy field in Kidachchiur. The calf was handed over to the Vavuniya Range Forest Conservation Office by the Sri Lanka Army and some locals. Range Forest Officer W J K Herath said the calf had been starving for several days and that it would be handed over to Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage after medical treatment.
2010-11-24 - Galgamuwa, Sri Lanka. Hiran Priyankara Jayasinghe
An elephant being transported by the Wildlife Department died of suffocation in the Galgamuwa area, officials said. The elephant, a tusker was being taken in a lorry when its leg broke through the bottom of the lorry and the elephant had struggled. Later attempts were made to release the elephant midway, but the attempt failed and the elephant had died.
2010-10-27 - Kekirawa, Sri Lanka. Karunaratne Dissanayake
The prowling of wild elephants in villages and paddy fields in the Kekirawa area has increased after the harvesting season. However cultivation in the Maha season has not been possible owing to a severe drought.
2010-10-26 - Trincomalee, Sri Lanka.
A wild elephant that had been saved from drowning in the sea off Sampur in Trincomalee a few months ago by the Sri Lanka Navy and released to the jungle was found dead last night in a well in Jayanthipura in Trincomalee. Few months ago the elephant had been caught in a current and swept farther into the deep sea when the Navy spotted it. The jumbo had been roaming in the Sampur and Trincomalee areas and was being monitored by the Wildlife Conservation officials.
2010-09-06 - Mahaweva, Sri Lanka.
Internally displaced persons (IDPs) returning to Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province face a big problem - elephants which have taken a liking to abandoned homesteads.Since the decades-long civil war ended in May 2009, thousands of residents who fled the area in the 1980s and 1990s have been returning to their homes only to find that the jumbos, which had lived in the area previously, were now wreaking havoc in farmers’ fields.
2010-08-25 - Kandy, Sri Lanka.
An elephant stands in front of Sri Lanka´s Temple of the Tooth (Dalada Maligawa) waiting for the start of Maha Pereha (Great Parade) at Kandy, about 110 km northeast of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Aug. 24, 2010. The Esala Maha Perahera (Great Parade) was held on Tuesday night at the ancient capital of Kandy. As one of the biggest Buddhist celebrations in Sri Lanka, the annual Esala Perahera during which elephants, drummers, dancers and acrobats parade along the streets of Kandy, is held for ten da...
2010-08-20 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Ajithlal Shanthaudaya
Buddhist temples and devalas in the country are finding it difficult to maintain the status and grandeur of their annual religious festivals and peraheras owing to the dearth of tame elephants. Basnayake Nilame of the Sabaragamuwa Maha Saman Devala Sunil Shantha Weerasekara who expressed concern about this situation, pointed out that there was an urgent need to capture and tame elephants for use in temple matters or else many annual processions that were considered as great national pageants w...
2010-08-17 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan wildlife veterinarians have gone on strike to protest at the alleged mishandling of elephant conservation which has resulted in an increase in deadly attacks, a union leader said Tuesday. "There is no proper management of wild elephants who are being pushed into narrow habitats as the government allows people to encroach into traditional elephant homelands," Vijitha Perera, the secretary of the vets´ union, told AFP.
2010-08-10 - Kaduruwewa tank, Sri Lanka. Atula Bandara
An elephant calf that drank from Kaduruwewa tank in Eppawala fell dead. The Wildlife Conservation Officers who visited the scene on reports received from the public examined the carcass. They were of the opinion that the calf had died from poisoning or when some object, probably a palmirah seed got lodged in its throat. However they said a gunshot injury they came across on the body could have also been the cause of death. Veterinary surgeon of the North Western Wildlife Zone Dr. Chandana Jayas...
2010-08-09 - Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka. SRILAL MITHTHAPALA
The “Gathering” is one of the most unique wildlife spectacles in Asia, where during the months of May to September, large numbers of wild elephants - 150 or more - gather around the banks of the Minneriya reservoir or tank. Viewing these elephants is quite easy, and today, due to the efforts of some of us wildlife enthusiasts,and with the support of Sri Lanka tourism, this is now fast becoming a “branded” event referred to as “The Gathering.”
2010-08-02 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
An elephant named Stumpy will be the mascot for the 2011 cricket World Cup. The elephant’s name was unveiled Monday — 200 days before the first ball is bowled — following an online contest. The winner receives a bat signed by cricket stars Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar of India and Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena.
2010-07-27 - Kobeiganei, Sri Lanka.
Three men were arrested in the area of Kobeiganei yesterday by Baladora Police, whilst transporting on motorbike, the tusks of an elephant they had killed at the Wilapattu National Park. The three arrestees, residents of the Adampanei, Novichchiyagama area, who were taken into custody by a team of policemen led by the OIC of the Baldora Police Station Inspector Abeyratne, are to be produced before the Hettipola Court today.
2010-07-12 - Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. Athula Bandara
A government hospital doctor is labouring hard to save the life of an elephant, which had been abandoned by Wildlife Officials as there was no improvement in the animal’s health despite medical treatment by them. At the request of the Ven. Thanthirimale Chandrarathana Nayake Thera and the Wilachchiya Divisional Secretary Sugath Kithsiri, Dr. Dhammika Kumara Dias volunteered to treat the animal lying in a mud hole for over a week in Medadangaswewa, Thanthirimale
2010-07-06 - Huruluwewa, Sri Lanka. Kanchana Ariyadasa
Wildlife officers are investigating whether a cow elephant found dead at Huruluwewa in Habarana had died of gun shot injuries and what had happened to its calf. They said the body of the elephant was found in the vicinity of the forest reserve but the calf was nowhere to be seen. A post mortem examination had revealed the elephant had been shot dead. In a similar incident the calf, of another elephant that was killed by poachers sometime ago was found in Colombo.
2010-05-17 - LUNUGAMWEHERA, Sri Lanka.
In the early hours of a hot dry day, four orphaned elephants begin a bumpy truck ride back to the jungles of southern Sri Lanka where they had been rescued from near certain death. The four baby jumbos, now aged five and six, are ready to leave the Elephant Transit Home where they have been treated and cared for since they were less than a year old. The state-run home is refuge for dozens of baby elephants who are separated from their herds, fall into wells or ditches or are shot at by angry far...
2010-04-25 - Pinnawela, Sri Lanka. Ruchika Kher
Dont call it crap. Dung is actually being turned into profit at the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage, thanks to a good idea.At the entrance to the orphanage stands a shop, Pinnawala Elephant Dung Paper, where elephant excrement is used to make products like notebooks, photo frames, gift items, book marks, photo albums and greeting cards. An elephants dung is just fibre. Elephants are poor digesters and over 50 percent of what they eat comes straight out, which helps in making dung products, M.R.S. P...
2010-03-29 - Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. Nimal Wijesinghe
The Wildlife Conservation Department has reinforced remedial measures to minimise human-elephant conflict which is on the increase. Special attention has been focused to strengthen existing electrified fences and create a number of protective fences. North Western Wildlife Conservation Zone, Conservation Officer S.A. Sarath told the Daily News that a 45 kilometre long new electrified fence will be created from Kalawewa (South) range towards Undhuruwa via Dambewatawa.
2010-03-02 - Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka.
A she elephant accompanied by her calf had been shot dead at Nellikulama in Anuradhapura, Wildlife officials said. Veterinary Surgeon of the Wild Life Department, W.A. Dharmakeerthi who conducted the post mortem examination the day before yesterday said the elephant had died on the spot, following gun shots.
2009-11-01 - Kandy, Sri Lanka.
An elephant who was tethered at the Natha Devala premises of the Sri Dalada Maligawa, Kandy attached the resident monk of Sri Pushparamaya, Ihala Kadigamuwa Ven. Maunawe Medhankara Thera on Saturday (31/10) evening and caused him serious injuries. The monk on admission to Kandy hospital succumbed to his injuries. This rogue elephant known as 'Nilame' was chained and confined to the Devala premises as it was behaving in a boisterous manner for some time. It had also reportedly attacked a mahout d...
2009-10-31 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Ananda Weerasuriya
An elephant at the Dehiwala zoo became unruly yesterday and damaged the roof of the elephant enclosure badly bruising and wounding its trunk, veterinary surgeons at the zoo said. The elephant named Bandula had been tied for the last few days since he had been in ‘must’ (the period when male elephants are ready for mating). However, the condition of the elephant had turned worse yesterday becoming violent and kicking and hitting at the concrete pillars of the enclosure.
2009-10-22 - Kurunegala, Sri Lanka. Pushpakumara Jayaratne
Statistically the death rate of wild elephants due to the human-elephant conflict increased this year when compared to the previous year. Director General of the Wildlife Conservation Department Ananda Weerasuriya said 160 deaths were reported last year and this increased to 170 elephants for the last nine months of the current year. He said about 50 per cent of this number had been shot dead with automatic firearms and that the homeguards were largely responsible for killing wild elephants. The...
2009-10-18 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Risidra Mendis
Another elephant killed due to gunshot wounds or electrocution has become a piece of news that we see almost every day. The deaths of wild elephants and humans seem to be increasing, with no immediate solution at hand. But while government authorities discuss possible solutions Sri Lanka’s elephant population continues to decline at an alarming rate.
2009-10-10 - Pinnawela, Sri Lanka. JOLEEN LUNJEW
Having to deal with tons of elephant dung can be a bit of a headache, but a touch of innovation has turned it into a profitable business. The first thing that caught my eye as we were waiting at the entrance of Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage, Sri Lanka, was a huge orange sign at a small shop beside the orphanage proclaiming: “Poo Paper Sold Here!”
2009-09-27 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
One of the suspects, Dr Dangolla in the case of a three- month- old baby elephant who died while being held captive in Balangoda, is alleged to have fled the country, environmentalists charged. "After the cub elephant was found in a room of a property belonging to the Deputy Chairman of the Balangoda Urban Council, the main suspect in the case, Richard Gonakumbura, father- in- law of the deputy chairman of the Balangoda Urban Council pleaded guilty at the Balangoda magistrate's court.
2009-09-26 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Nadira Gunatilleke
Veterinary doctors of Sri Lanka have identified two elephants that were infected by rabies. This is the first time the decease was identified among elephants, said Sri Lanka's virology research institute chief Ochala Wimalaratna addressing a seminar held yesterday. The infected elephants are tamed ones that live in Colombo municipal limits, she said.
2009-09-26 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
For the first time in the Sri Lankan film industry, the first screening of the movie “Bindu” directed by award winning filmmaking duo Somaratne Dissanayake and Renuka Balasuriya’s was free of charge in all cinema halls island wide. The movie “Bindu” was released in Lankan cinema halls yesterday (23) and the show was free to all movie lovers for the first time in the Sri Lankan film industry. Large crowds were seen lined up at the cinema’s yesterday to watch the movie.
2009-09-20 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. L.B.Senaratne
The elephant, whether captive or wild, evokes much interest, debate and controversy in Sri Lanka. On the one hand there is a cry among those who organize processions and religious pageants that there are not enough captive elephants to go around during the Perahera seasons, especially during the period of July to September. On the other hand, farmers and rural people who live in areas close to forests and rely on agriculture as the mainstay of their livelihoods complain of elephant attacks not o...
2009-08-30 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Dubbed Kublai Khan for his majestic form, the eight-foot tusker who died last Sunday was a favourite with visitors to the Yala park. Here veteran wildlife photographer and researcher Lal Anthonis who has been studying the Yala tuskers for decades shares his fascination with Kublai Khan dating back all of 20 years…. Describing Kublai Khan as an ‘icon’ of Yala, Lal Anthonis, immediate past president of the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society recalls how Kublai Khan was on the cover of the...
2009-08-30 - Karuwalagaswewa, Sri Lanka. Hiran P Jayasinghe
A baby elephant about five months old had accidentally fallen into a flooded quarry in the Kuda Medawachchiya jungle area in Karuwalagaswewa.Villagers reported this incident to Wildlife officials who spared no pains to rescue the animal. Helped by the Karuwalagaswewa police, the animal was rescued on Friday evening.
2009-08-25 - Kumbikkulama, Sri Lanka. Kanchana Kumara Ariyadasa
In a continuation of the conflict between humans and elephants, a man was killed but a child miraculously escaped unhurt when an elephant in the Kumbikkulama area of Habarana charged a group of farmers tending their land. T.D Wimalasena (47), father of two and a farmer from the Heenmoragolla area had being working at a vegetable plot at around 5.00 last evening, together with a group of other farmers, when an elephant had emerged from the jungle and charged the group, causing panic.
2009-08-25 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. S.S. Selvanayagam
The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed the fundamental rights petition filed in respect of two baby elephants that had been offered to Sri Dalada Maligawa by the President. The Bench comprising Chief Justice Asoka de Silva, Justices Saleem Marsoof and Jagath Balapatabendi dismissed the petition after it was withdrawn. The Supreme Court was also notified that action was being taken to reunite the baby elephants with their mothers. Counsel I.R .Rajapakse appearing for the petitioner had earlier tol...
2009-08-23 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Risidra Mendis
An ongoing baby elephant racket in the country has come to light with the discovery of a third baby being held captive in Balangoda. However the Flying Squad of the Department of Wildlife and Conservation (DWC) is yet to find out how many baby elephants have been abducted from the wild and how many of them have died while in captivity. It was in early 2000 that the first baby elephant was found in Pugoda in the Kirindiwela area. According to an animal rights lawyer the owners of the baby elephan...
2009-08-10 - Kadugannawa, Sri Lanka.
The Forum of the Basnayake Nialmes (BN) of Sri Lanka revealed that there are only 98 domesticated elephants now in Sri Lanka following the death of the she elephant at Kadugannawa on Friday. The number of tamed elephants dwindled fast during the part few years as they died due to old age. There were more than 120 of them a few years and the number decreased as 60 per cent of them were over 70 years, the Forum said. The she elephant which died while returning to her master at Hemmathagama after p...
2009-08-09 - Kandy, Sri Lanka.
Sindu and Raju are not the only elephants handed over to the Dalada Maligawa at the request of the Diyawadana Nilames (DN). In 2007, the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) came under pressure to release a wild elephant brought to the Maligawa to be tamed. Dr.Vijitha Perera, a veterinary surgeon attached to the DWC, described the sad fate of this elephant in his book “Ten Years with the Wild Elephants” (Wana Ali Samaga Dasa Wasarak).
2009-08-09 - Balangoda, Sri Lanka. Malaka Rodrigo
The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) raided a house in Balangoda on a tip off that a three-month old elephant calf was being kept there illegally. According to Wildlife sources, following the tip offthe DWC’s flying squad carried out the raid in Bagewatte last morning after being on the lookout for the calf the past week. The team headed by Upali Padmasiri had eventually located the house on Friday night and when they raided it last morning, they found the elephant chained inside the ...
2009-07-29 - Kandy, Sri Lanka. Asela Kuruluwansa
The third Kumbal Perahera of the Kandy Esala pageant will parade the streets of Kandy tonight. A massive crowd witnessed the first Kumbal Perahera on Monday. Although the perahera commenced at 7.20 p.m. all streets along the perahera route were overcrowded with people occupying all vantage points by 4 p.m. with a considerable number left out on other streets unable to gain access to streets on the perahera route. Among the crowds were a large number of children.
2009-07-27 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Two baby elephants under five years old were taken away from their mothers, sparking anger in a world-renown elephant orphanage in central Sri Lanka, a local English newspaper said on Monday. The Island said the two baby tuskers were forcibly separated from their mothers by the Diyawadana Nilame Pradeep Nilanga Dela, the chief custodian of the Temple of the Tooth, on Saturday night at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, about 80 km northeast of the capital Colombo.
2009-04-26 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The National Trust of Sri Lanka will present another lecture in its ongoing monthly series - this time, 'The Wild Elephants of Sri Lanka' by Dr. Srilal Miththapala on April 30, at 6.30 p.m. at the Barefoot Gallery, Colombo 3. The talk will give a brief background of the evaluation of the elephants and the scientific classification of African and Asian species, the characteristics of Sri Lankan elephants along with the highlights of the historical and religious association that elephants have had...
2009-02-13 - Hambantota, Sri Lanka. Raja Waidyasekera
A three year plan will be implemented in Hambantota district to minimize human-elephant conflict. The Department of wildlife will implement the project till 2011. Rs. 527 million has been allocated for the project. Under the plan mooted by the Department of Wildlife the existing electric fence in extent of 1,336 kilo meters will be maintained, wild elephants that roam about in villages will be rehabilitated. Plots of land will be allocated for elephants.
2009-02-07 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Some of you may have visited the Elephant Transit Home (ETH), Eth Athuru Sevana, at the Udawalawe National Park. If you have been there, you would know just what a joyful experience it is to observe at close range all the elephants, especially the little ones, who reside there.
2009-01-17 - Kegalle, Sri Lanka.
The second zoological garden in Sri Lanka, which is currently under constructions, is scheduled to open by next June at Pinnawela in Kegalle about 80 km northeast of capital Colombo. Minister for Sports and Public Recreation Gamini Lokuge said that the first phase of the zoo will be to house the local mammals and the birds. The 77 acre Pinnawela Zoological garden is being constructed near the famous elephant orphanage in the area. According to the Minister eighty percent of construction works of...
2009-01-16 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
A Wildlife Conservation Department survey has revealed that 2,241 elephants have died as a result of shooting, unknown reasons, electrocution, poisoning, accidents and natural and other causes from 1990 to 2007. The current elephant population is estimated at 3,500-4,000 and a gradual increase has been witnessed in Mahaweli and Wayamba regions during the last four decades. According to the survey, 100 elephants have died due to natural causes from 1990 to 2007 and a certain number of elephants t...
2009-01-11 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Kumudini Hettiarachchi
As controversy surrounded preparations to transfer two “babies” from the Elephant Transit Home (ETH) at Uda Walawe to the Pinnawela Orphanage, opinion among activists was divided whether this was a good or bad move. “We are hoping to move ‘Atlas’ and another baby elephant from ETH to Pinnawela on Sunday (today) or this week,” said W.A.D.A. Wijesooriya, Director-General of the Department of Wild Life Conservation (DWLC), when contacted by The Sunday Times.
2008-12-18 - Buttala, Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan Tree Tops Jungle Lodge has been honoured with the Wild Asia Responsible Tourism Award 2008 at an award ceremony in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Tree Tops is a basic mud- and tree-hut ecolodge entirely run and managed by staff recruited in a remote community where hunter-gathering is the traditional lifestyle combined with slash-burn farming. Situated in lowland Uva, 10 km from Buttala, the lodge is located in dryzone Weliara bush jungle in Southeastern Sri Lanka, a wilderness and slash and...
2008-11-14 - Kurunegala correspondent, Sri Lanka. S. M. Wijayaratne
According to the recent survey conducted by the Department of Wildlife Conservation, it has been revealed that during the past nine months of 2008, 60 wild elephants have died and 24 human beings have died following attacks by wild elephants in the North Western zone of the wildlife conservation. In the year 2007, 33 humans and 73 wild elephants have died of this ongoing conflict.
2008-10-17 - Uda Walawe, Sri Lanka.
The elephant-human conflict has claimed a high number of deaths from both species. While authorities attempt to protect the elephants, cultivators often lay traps or shoot at the animals who invade their plantations. Several transit homes have been set up to care for the offspring of killed elephants and to send them back to the wild successfully.
2008-10-11 - Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. Nimal Wijesinghe
The Wildlife Conservation Authorities have planned to set up a number of 'holding grounds' to detain wild jumbos who frequently invade the hamlets. Manjula Amararatne, Assistant Director-in-Charge of North Western Wildlife Conservation Zone told the Sunday Observer that steps are being taken to start two wild elephants detention grounds at Ritigala along the Banks of Yanoya in Mihintale and at Lunugamwehera in the South. The Ritigala holding ground will consist 1,000 hectares with a electrified ...
2008-10-10 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Wildlife Conservation Department has planned to form 'Elephant Protection Societies' in the North Western wildlife preservation zone for minimising the elephant-human conflict. Assistant Director in charge of the North Western Zone Manjula Amararatne which consist of five districts such as Mannar, Puttalam, Vavuniya, Anuradhapura and Kurunegala, said that villagers who live in areas where elephant invasions are rampant will be trained in strategical methodologies that could be practised in d...
2008-10-06 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Despite the conflict between the two species Sri Lankans have managed to rescue the lives of five wild elephants fallen into agriculture wells in Kekirawa of the North Central Province during the last 3 days. According to Wildlife Department, during a rescue operation that took place on October 3rd to remove two elephant calves and a female elephant, an onlooker was attacked by the female elephant and later succumbed to his injuries. However, another female elephant died before being rescued on ...
2008-10-06 - Minneriya, Sri Lanka.
According to Sri Lanka's wildlife department, 193 elephants died in 2007 and 171 died in 2006. Most of them were either shot, poisoned or electrocuted. The population has now shrunk to 4,500 from 12,000 a century ago. "You can't completely stop the human against elephant conflict," said Jayawardene, who worked for 30 years at the government's wildlife department. "But, with education and money coming into local hands through elephant safaris, we can minimise the damage. Locals will treat the ele...
2008-10-05 - , Sri Lanka. Malaka Rodrigo
Among the many elephant deaths we hear of, this was particularly shocking. Not only because it was a majestic tusker being monitored through a satellite collar, but also because it was killed inside a national park. Ravana died on August 25 in a muddy water hole inside Lunugamvehera National Park, from infected gunshot wounds. The post-mortem revealed that the jumbo– named after the powerful king of ancient Sri Lanka – was starving at the time of death - the wound on its cheek preventing it ...
2008-09-30 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankas Ministry of Public Recreation and Sports has allocated 80 million rupees to upgrade the Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala, about 90 km north of the capital Colombo, the government said. In a measure to attract more tourists to the world famous elephant sanctuary the Ministry has allocated funds build a ‘open zoo’ in an eco-friendly environment. The Ministry plans to lay an internal road network, erect a parapet wall around the zoo, construct an overhead bridge and build a w...
2008-09-23 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation
Constructive measures have been put in place to solve the human - elephant conflict. Minister of natural resources and environment Pathali Champika Ranawaka quoting a recent survey said that the number of elephants living in Sri Lanka has considerably increased. According to a detail survey it is reported that there were 673 elephants in 1993. But it has increased four times more than its original figure as of this date. There are more than 2420 elephants found in Mahaweli zone. But unfortunatel...
2008-09-21 - Akkaraipattu, Sri Lanka. Rathindra Kuruwita
Wild elephants killed two people in the Damana Police area yesterday. According to Damana Police, this is the second instance where humans have been attacked by elephants in the area recently. “The elephants have attacked and killed two individuals in the early hours, in a place called Rahman town and the bodies have been sent to Akkaraipattu for magisterial inquiries,†a senior Police officer there said adding that the attacks on humans by elephants have risen in the area dramatical...
2008-09-20 - Mahaweli, Sri Lanka. Kelum Bandara
Despite the worsening of human-elephant conflict which has claimed the lives of both species, the elephant population has drastically increased from 673 in 1993 to 2423 this year in the Mahaweli areas of the country. Environment and Natural Resources Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka made this observation yesterday while referring to a report of the census conducted covering the Mahaweli areas of Trincomalee, Polonnaruwa, Matale, Badulla and Ampara. Addressing a ceremony held to mark the launch ...
2008-09-11 - Polpithigama, Sri Lanka. M. A. R. MANUKULASOORIYA
Nearly 1,000 villagers from Gomadiyagala in the Polpithigama police area launched an agitation campaign against Wildlife Officers on Tuesday after a 25-year-old man was killed by a wild elephant near the Hakwatuna oya reservoir in the Polpithigama Divisional Secretariat division. The Divisional Secretary promised that he would take every possible action on this matter. The villagers forcibly opened the gate of the Divisional Secretary's office and entered the premises and made a complaint regard...
2008-09-05 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Environment Ministry will soon formulate a national level action plan with new regulations with regard to tamed elephants to ensure their well-being, Environment Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said. The regulations will comply with international conditions as well, the Minister told a ceremony at the Kotte Raja Maha Viharaya on Thursday. The Minister opened the sacred relic exhibition at the conclusion of the temple’s 108th annual perahera.
2008-09-02 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
At least two people and an elephant have died in the human-elephant conflict prevalent in SriLanka's rural north central and eastern areas, police said Tuesday. Police said that a 45-year-old man was killed as a result of being attacked by a wild elephant at Sigiriya, about 165 km from here in North Central Province. The ill-fated man was attacked at around 8 p.m. local time Monday while returning home. In the nearby Digampathaha area, another man was attacked by a wild elephant earlier on Monda...
2008-09-02 - Mahavilachchiya, Sri Lanka. Senaka de Silva
Wild elephants are known to go on the rampage, but drunken elephants can be a handful or is it a mouthful as both villagers and wildlife officials in Mahavilachchiya came to experience. Wild Life officials said a roaming herd of wild elephants walked into a kasippu den after sniffing the aromatic smell of fruits used in distilling the brew and had more than a mouthful of the booze and in their drunken state ran amok destroying crops and houses in the village. The men at the illegal brewery showe...
2008-09-01 - Kandy, Sri Lanka. S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen
In Sri Lanka nearly 120 elephants are killed by humans and in return about 65 people die after being attacked by elephants every year. The number of cases of elephants being killed or run over by trains could be reduced if the train staff take precautions by giving the elephants enough warning in advance when they spot the elephants close to the rail tracks, Managing Trustee of the Bio Diversity and Elephant Conservation Trust and leading expert on Asian elephants and former planter Jayantha Jay...
2008-08-30 - Puttlalam, Sri Lanka. Hiran Priyankara Jayasinghe
Puttlalam district farmers who have been severely affected by rampaging elephants say they may even have to give up farming, in the face of little or no state compensation or measures to minimise the human-elephant conflict. “Elephants have destroyed our crops that cost us many months of hard labour. This is in addition to being in debt over the capital to plant these crops,” lamented T. D. Ranbanda a farmer from the village of Mahauswewa in Anamaduwa.
2008-08-28 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
You don't always get thanked for your good deeds - certainly not these villagers anyway, as they found out after rescuing this Sri Lanka elephant after it fell into a local well. It seemed rather more angry than happy, giving the local cameraman who was filming a run for his money as well as the villagers who helped him. The baby elephant in question had fallen into a cultivation well in one of the farming areas in North Central Sri Lankan Province, it's an increasing sight as many of the elepha...
2008-08-24 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Malaka Rodrigo
The baby abduction from Kalubowila led to the discovery of a baby smuggling racket that shocked the nation. At present, Sri Lanka’s Wildlife Department officers are investigating trails of baby elephants allegedly being abducted from the wild. The recovery of a baby elephant illegally held without a proper permit in an estate close to Colombo is probably only the tip of this iceberg, they feel. The elephant is now in the Uda Walawe Elephant Transit Home.
2008-08-24 - Kandy, Sri Lanka. S. M. Jiffrey ABDEEN- Kandy South Group Corr
Elephants live in herds are led by the oldest female elephant in the herd. The male elephant is driven away from the herd to prevent breeding. These are the strange ways of elephants said the Managing Trustee of Bio Diversity and Elephant Conservation Trust and leading expert on Asian elephants and former planter Jayantha Jayawardena. Jayawardena said that the elephants in Sri Lanka are highly threatened in spite of what anyone may say to the contrary. Explaining the reasons for the Human - Elep...
2008-08-24 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Risidra Mendis
Can you imagine a perahera without an elephant? This is a thought that constantly crosses our minds especially with the fast dwindling elephant population in the country. The main attraction at the annual Kandy Esela Perahera is the majestic tusker, draped in a colourful costume decorated with beads and sequins, carrying the tooth relic. The tuskers and elephants are at times in musth but are forced by their mahouts to take part in the perahera, resulting in cases where elephants run amok and i...
2008-08-20 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Shakuntala Perera
No other animal in Sri Lanka has suffered the wrath of human interference like the elephant. Every year records a number of elephant deaths that the country can ill afford. If there are no ill planned elephant drives killing them, there are the gun shots. The latest in the series of causes for concern was the finding of a calf in chains at a location in Athurugiriya. The owner of the calf could not produce a proper license. The Flying Squad of the Wild Life Department found the three year old ma...
2008-08-20 - Kandy, Sri Lanka. R.A.Ratwatte, Basnayake Nilame – Lankatilleke Sri Vishnu Devalaya- Handessa
There seems to be a belief among the general populace that a perahera is judged by the number of elephants therein. One of the first questions that is asked when one says one has viewed a perahera is: "How many elephants?" A large number is greeted with an appropriate response and a small number is invariably greeted with derision and an insinuation that one has wasted one’s time at that perahera! Contrary to popular belief and the belief of certain uneducated custodians of temples and organis...
2008-08-17 - Kandy, Sri Lanka. P. Karunakharan
Nearly 100 caparisoned elephants, dancers and torchbearers walked down the streets of this central city decorated with colourful lights and flags as the annual Buddhist festival of Kandy Perahera (pageant) was celebrated with great enthusiasm. The colourful parade began Saturday night from the sacred Buddhist shrine of Dalada Maligawa, showcasing the temple custodians known as Nilames, who were dressed up like ancient kings. The festivities also included traditional Kandyan dancers, fire-jugglin...
2008-08-14 - Matale, Sri Lanka. Nimal S.Bogahawatta
A man was trampled to death by a tamed elephant near the Karandagolla bridge in Matale on Tuesday. The victim K.I.B.Jayasuriya of Karandagolla died on the spot. The Matale police are conducting further inquiries.
2008-08-11 - Pinnawela, Sri Lanka. K. Venkateshwarlu
For keepers and mahouts alike, it was always a messy problem that defied solution. We are talking about the roughly 180 kg of waste an adult pachyderm generates a day. And imagine the pile if it were from a herd of 60 staying and sauntering about in one place. That is simply a problem of elephantine proportions at the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage here in Sri Lanka, especially for the poor keepers. But it need not be anymore. For, the orphanage, counted among the best in the world for elephants, ...
2008-06-03 - Anuradhapura , Sri Lanka. Roland Buerk
The renewed civil war between Sri Lanka's government and the separatist Tamil Tigers is claiming many victims, among them increasing numbers of the island's wild elephants. Of the 74 elephants which died in the north and north-west region last year, 44 were killed by gunfire. The others fell victim to poison, were deliberately electrocuted by farmers who connected wire fences to the mains, or fell down wells. Just four died of natural causes.
2008-03-25 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Yusof Sulaiman
Conservationists around the world are again breathing uneasy following word that Sri Lanka's 25-year civil war has caused the death of 193 elephants last year, up by 13 percent compared to the previous year. In a plan gone wrong, park warden J A Weerasingam blames the action of villagers. "They are shooting my animals," said Weerasingam.
2008-03-24 - Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. Athula Bandara
The residents of several areas including Shravastipura, Siyambalawewa and Aluthwewa in Anuradhapura are facing problems from wild elephants. They have complained to the police and the Wildlife Conservation Department that a herd of wild elephants that roam the human habitat after dusk had destroyed more than 400 acres of cultivated land and 15 houses. They accused the Wildlife Conservation Department of not taking any steps to chase the elephants into a forest reserve. However the Department’s...
2008-03-23 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Namali Premawardhana
It is quite a feat to get inside an elephant’s mind, to discover without interaction with the imposing and intimidating animal, the trials and tribulations it faces in daily life; its wants and needs. “Tranquil Footsteps” is one man’s effort to help us achieve that. Through his book, which follows one herd of elephants living within the sanctuary of the Uda Walawe National Park, Srilal Miththapala not only affords the reader valuable and interesting information about this most majestic m...
2008-03-21 - Dambulla, Sri Lanka.
The manager of Dambulla economic centre Christy L. Wijerathna said yesterday that 25 tons of vegetables had to be thrown out as it had got wet and spoilt due to rain and could not be sold. They were seen eaten by wild elephants. On Wednesday the centre had received a large quantity of vegetables, but only a few traders from outstations had come to purchase them, Wijerathna said. At the economic centre, a kilogram of cabbage could not be sold for Rs. 3, he added.
2008-03-19 - PIMBURELLEGAMA,, Sri Lanka. Simon Gardner
Shaking his head at an elephant carcass rotting by a lush paddy field in north Sri Lanka, park warden J.A. Weerasingha counts the cost of a state initiative to arm villagers against Tamil Tiger rebels. While Sri Lanka has long wrestled with a human-elephant conflict that kills dozens of animals and people annually, elephant deaths are up sharply and it's clear why. In what the military says is a bid to protect villages in the far north as the government and its Tiger foes wage a new phase of a 2...
2008-03-16 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Malaka Rodrigo
Elephants are generally animals on the move, but this bull elephant frequenting Suriyawewa stood lethargically in one place. Soon it collapsed. The wildlife ranger of Hambantota H.M. Abeykoon and veterinary surgeon for the region Dr. Suhada Jayawardena tried giving water to the animal. The elephant’s jaws were pierced and its tongue badly damaged. Something had exploded inside its mouth seriously injuring the animal. The veterinary surgeon immediately started giving it saline. Despite their ef...
2008-03-10 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Security forces armed with loud hailers were deployed in eastern Sri Lanka Monday to drive away wild elephants blocking access to polling booths, police said. Villagers in Wellaveli told the authorities that they were unable to vote at the first local elections in 14 years because a herd of elephants had blocked their polling booth, a police official in the area said. "We sent a team of commandos in armoured personnel carriers and loud hailers and sirens to drive away the elephants," the officia...
2008-03-08 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. John Mackie, Canwest News Service
A catchy name is a key ingredient to success. As is a unique product. Mr. Ellie Pooh has both. Mr. Ellie Pooh is called Mr. Ellie Pooh because it offers paper products made of elephant dung in Sri Lanka. Honest. "It's about 70 per cent dung," explains company founder Karl Wald over the phone from frigid Grand Forks, North Dakota.
2008-03-04 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Champika Ranawaka, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources,
In Sri Lanka our Flora and Fauna Protection Ordinance (1937) and National Policy on elephants (1996) strictly prohibited culling as a measure to control elephant population. Our culture is based on compassion to all living beings and this too does not permit such measures. Capturing and domestication measures too are being restricted by the law. Our Government signed the CITES (Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species of Animals & Plants) so that exportation and importation of...
2008-03-02 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Wasantha Chandrapala
The duel between man and beast does not seem to have an end and the situation seems to be worsening by the day. The result is that both man and beast die in the confrontation. While an elephant at Dighawapiya area in Ampara district was killed in early February, on the 26th of last month a wild elephant killed a farmer in Ruhunugama village. Other villages where the menace is rampant in this district are Kotavehera, Suduwella and Vijithapura where at sundown elephants stray into paddy fields des...
2008-02-28 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Wasantha Ramanayake
"Asokamala" was born and bred in captivity and therefore could not be released to the wilderness, Wildlife Director General Ananda Weerasuriya stated in his objections to a Fundamental Rights Application before the Supreme Court. The Director General added that the elephant was born in the Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala and rared in captivity. The rights application was filed by petitioner Vijitha Fernando of Mt. Lavinia, the treasurer of the organisation, Society for the Protection of Animal R...
2008-02-17 - Yala, Sri Lanka. Rohan Abeywardene
A wild female elephant freely roaming the jungles surrounding the historic Sithulpauwa Raja Maha vihara complex in the Yala National Park is also a welcome guest at the temple day and night thanks to the loving kindness practised by its chief incumbent Ven Mevaramba Hemaratne Thera to all living beings. The only problem is that for this friendly creature anytime is meal time and you will find him poking his trunk through any opening in the monks’ living quarters to satisfy its voracious appeti...
2008-02-03 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Sanath Weerasuriya
Tranquil Footsteps, the dream book of Srilal Miththapala, was launched last week Srilal is a serious wildlife and nature enthusiast with a penchant for elephants. 'Tranquil Footsteps' a long awaited dream of Srilal Miththapala which tells the story about the elephants of Udawalawe National Park and it traces the life of a female elephant and her family, living in the Uda Walawe National Park during the period of 1998-2002.
2007-12-31 - Kegalle, Sri Lanka. B. W. Eheliyagoda
The elephant 'Suranimala' of the renowned Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in the outskirts of Kegalle town created a scene when it was taken by its mahouts for a bath in the 'Maha Oya' just by the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage on December 24. While bathing 'Suranimala' became restless and started to run amok threatening the many visitors to the elephant orphanage on this Christmas eve. There were both foreign and local visitors watching the elephants bathing. The efforts of the mahouts to bring the ...
2007-12-30 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Yerevan Zoo in Armenia was in the news last year as animal rights activists battled Sri Lankan authorities in the Supreme Court to stop nine year old Asokamala, born at the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage from being exported to that zoo. Rights activists say the Yerevan Zoo which boasts of 2,300 animals is in a deplorable state. Recreational Minister, Gamini Lokuge who was the mover and shaker of the proposed gift reportedly denied to media, claims by animal rights activists that there was a co...
2007-11-24 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Kumudini Hettiarachchi
An elephant has been taken to court, not just any court but the highest in the land, the Supreme Court. Asokamala, born and bred at the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage, has kicked up dust being in the centre of a controversy over whether she should be “exported” as a gift from Sri Lanka to Armenia. While animal rights activists battle the authorities in the Supreme Court, in a fundamental rights case, Asokamala, oblivious to being in the eye of the storm is following her routine. Her fate will ...
2007-10-31 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Supreme Court today issued an order not to transfer nine-year-old female elephant "Asokamala" to the Yerevan Zoo in Armenia. The court made this order following a lawsuit filed by an animal rights activist Vijitha Fernando who protested that the cold climate in Armenia does not suit the animal.
2007-10-21 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Isuri Kaviratne
The Cabinet has approved the gifting of an elephant to Armenia while Wild Life officials were still studying the suitability of the weather and other conditions for the animal. The move has drawn angry responses from various groups closely following the issue of gifting the elephant Asokamala. Environment Minister Champika Ranawaka told The Sunday Times that the Ministry is still considering the suitability of the weather and the condition of the zoo before issuing the permission to send the nin...
2007-10-19 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan animal rights activists have made a strong plea to the government to follow India and stop the practice of gifting animals to foreign countries as this is not only cruel, but depletes Sri Lankas fauna. It is time we took India as an example and stopped the practice of gifting animals to foreign countries as a diplomatic gesture, said Sagarica Rajakarunanaike, President of Sathva Mithra, about the Sri Lankan cabinets decision to gift an elephant to an ill-equipped zoo in cold and inhos...
2007-10-18 - Gagani Weerakoon, Sri Lanka.
Despite strong protests by various animal rights activists against the sending of the nine-year-old cow-elephant ‘Asokamala’ to a zoo in Armenia, the government is to proceed with its ‘donation’ to the Armenian government. Asokamala is from the Pinnawala elephant orphanage and has been transferred to the Dehiwala zoo prior to being sent to Armenia, sources said.
2007-10-17 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka will donate a she elephant to Armenia in response to a request by the Armenian Government to consolidate bilateral friendly relations between the two countries. The Cabinet has approved a memorandum submitted in this connection, the Government Information Department said. Director General National Zoological Gardens H. Dissanayake said accordingly a nine-year-old she elephant named 'Asokamala' from the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage will be sent to Armenia shortly.
2007-10-15 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Nimal Wijesinghe
About 160 elephants and 50 persons die from the elephant-human conflict, Environment Minister Patali Champaka Ranawaka said. With the Environmental Development Ministry embarking on a full-scale environmental development plan islandwide, the Minister has declared a “Green month” from today.
2007-09-23 - Sammanturai, Sri Lanka. Wasantha Chandrapala
The menacing wild elephant is today the oft talked about subject in almost every village which is close to forest areas. Hardly a day passes sans some incident involving this animal. It appears that the attempts made by the Wild Life authorities are hardly able to control this hazardous situation. Ampara district figures more prominently in such episodes where confrontation between man and beast is most common. The most recent incident happened last Tuesday when a two year-old girl became a vict...
2007-09-22 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka Wildlife Department sources say that 117 wild elephants died so far this year. The majority of the elephant deaths were reported from the Northwestern Wildlife Zone which inhabits the most number of elephants. Fifty four elephants were killed there. In the Mahaweli zones 37 elephants were killed. Twenty were killed in South and two killings each were reported from Central, Yala, Bundala and East Wildlife zones.
2007-09-18 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Colombo University Senior Professor on Ecology Sarath Kotagama says that through the estimates in the past 100 years and the records on man – elephant conflicts, he can prove that the countrys elephant population grew despite the popular belief of decline. He points out that the elephant population was less than 1,000 according to 1953 estimations. The 1973 estimates accounted the elephant population between 1600 – 2200. According to an estimate conducted by Dr. Nandana Athapattu and Man...
2007-09-16 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
C-Pack members were discussing Big-Houses proposal to gift an elephant to Romania. But Mano said they could gift more elephants after November once the remaining Em Pees quit Green leader after their move to topple G-ment fails with the budget vote.
2007-09-12 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Wildlife Department office of the Trincomalee district of the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka announced that 40 wild elephants were killed so far in this year in Trincomalee district alone. Meanwhile, in the adjacent Sigiriya area Wildlife officers and villagers were working round the clock to rescue two wild elephants that had fallen into a cultivation well near Indugaswewa on Monday night.
2007-09-11 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The zoo accommodates a number of primates, some in larger areas than the big cats. But the most distressing sight is that of the elephants, five of them, all chained to the ground. Thankfully, Alipore zoo now has them in open spaces surrounded by moats, although it still cannot stop visitors from feeding them all kinds of rubbish. Yet the elephants are the USP of the Colombo zoo which, together with the famous elephant orphanage in Pinnawala and the farm at Gonapola, form the National Zoological...
2007-09-08 - Buttala, Sri Lanka.
A Sri Lankan eco-lodge built in the shape of an elephant has been nominated for a top slot at the World Travel Awards, its operators said. KumbukRiver, in Okkampitiya in the Buttala is about 250 kilometres away from the capital Colombo and are among the eight lodges nominated for Leading Eco-Lodge in the World at the World Travel Awards to be held later this year. The first time Sri Lanka figures among the world’s leading classifications at the showpiece annual event which also includes awards...
2007-09-05 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Tamed elephants are a dwindling breed in Sri Lanka that has posed a problem for the conduct of the numerous Peraheras, Environment Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said. According to the Minister, there are only 137 tamed elephants in the country and it has posed a major obstacle in conducting of nearly 72 annual peraheras throughout the country. Ranawaka said tuskers too are a rapidly dwindling species with only 17 of the breed found in Sri Lanka. This is a substantial decrease and is bound to...
2007-09-04 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The 46th elephant cub born in Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Sri Lanka recently was ceremoniously named today as Vidula. The elephant cub received the name after a children’s radio channel initiated by the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) recently. The elephant cub got the name Vidula on the request of the pioneer of the radio channel, Sunil Sarath Perera, the Director General of SLBC. Vidula was born to Sapumalee last week. He is the 82nd member of the elephant family in captivity a...
2007-08-31 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Champika Ranwaka says that the Ministry needs Rs. 10 billion per year for the management of wild elephants in the country. However, the Ministry receives only Rs. 3 billion for all its work, the Minister says. The Minister also pointed out that the shortage of tamed elephants would be a problem in future since there are only 137 tamed elephants while there are 72 famous cultural pageants per year countrywide.
2007-08-29 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Department and the All Lanka Tamed Elephant Owners' Association are planning to sign a Memorandum of Understanding pertaining to the welfare and safety of the tamed elephants. The MOU now being prepared will be signed in September, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources said. The government aims to interact positively with the tamed elephant owners to protect the dwindling elephant population in the country.
2007-08-26 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Forty sixth elephant cub was born in Sri Lanka’s Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage recently. An elephant named Sapumali gave birth to the new cub. The officials said that the cub is in good health. The orphanage originally founded in order to afford care and protection to the many orphaned elephants found injured in various accidents in the jungle has its own generation born in captivity now. Pinnawala, the largest herd of captive elephants in the world with 81 elephants in total is a major tourist...
2007-08-26 - Pinnawela, Sri Lanka.
2007-08-25 - Kantale, Sri Lanka.
Three more wild elephants including two calves were mowed down by the Colombo bound express train at Kitulkotte in Kantale yesterday morning, raising this year’s death toll of wild elephants to 71. Kantale police said a herd of elephants were crossing the railway line when the accident occurred at the 153rd milepost, killing the three elephants aged one, six and 25. Two more elephants were also badly injured and wild life officers who were summoned to the scene treated the injured elephants, a...
2007-08-23 - Mawanella, Sri Lanka. Sarath Samaranayake
The Gannoruwa elephant, known to be the tallest elephant in Sri Lanka who has been featured in the annual Kandy Esala Pageant consecutively for over 60 years died after a prolonged illness at Pamunuwa, Mawanella while receiving treatment from Veterinary Surgeon Dr. Asoka Dangolla and traditional physicians of Miyanapalawa. The elephant owned by Lucky Bandaranayake was 80 years at the time of its death. The elephant was buried in Mawanella yesterday. Secretary, tamed elephants owners association ...
2007-08-19 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Marisa de Silva
A private agricultural farm that is coming up in a major elephant corridor between the Wasgamuwa and Maduru Oya national parks could precipitate the human-elephant conflict in the future, environmentalists have warned. Environmentalist Samantha Suranjan said there is an important elephant pathway crossing the Nilgala, Maduru Oya, Wasgamuwa, Floodplain National Park and the Somawathiya National Park. He said this had been identified by a Mahaweli Environment Report (Tippetts Abbett McCarthy Strat...
2007-08-17 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Chamikara Weerasinghe
The Environment and Natural Resources Ministry has stepped up action to implement a pilot project to arrest the human-elephant conflict in Yala and Lunugamwehera through its recently established Elephant Conservation Trust Fund. Environment and Natural Resources Minister Champika Ranawaka said yesterday that bureaucratic red tape had been overcome to carry out the project. The Government has decided to allocate Rs. 100 million to the fund from the Treasury to be returned once sufficient funds ar...
2007-08-05 - Kandy, Sri Lanka.
These are the first pictures of the two tuskers gifted by the Government of Myanmar to the Government of Sri Lanka, with the Myanmar Ambassador and veterinarian Dr. Kmin Maung Tsu of the Myanmar Forestry Ministry. President Mahinda Rajapaksa inspected the two tuskers and fed them when they were brought to the Janadhipathi Mandiraya in Kandy about two weeks ago. The official handing over of the two tuskers would be on the last day of the Perahera or on the following day. The elephant keeper from ...
2007-08-05 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The conservation of a species necessitates the provision of all resources (habitat, security, food, water etc.) necessary to maintain a stable population into the long-term future. Conservation has two aspects; one is the protection of the species and the other, scientific management of the species and the resources necessary for its conservation. The continued existence of the Asian elephant in the wild is threatened not only by the actions of some but also due to others not taking any action.
2007-08-03 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka Tamed Elephant Owners Association laments that the number of tamed elephants have dropped gradually. The Association figures point out that only 137 tamed elephants are now in the country. About 110 of them are over 50 years of age. There are only 18 tuskers among them and seven belong to the sacred Temple of Tooth in Kandy. The Secretary of the Tamed Elephant Owners Association Damsiri Karunarathna says that the number of tamed elephants did not increase after the licenses to capture ...
2007-07-30 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The animal, whose name is Chooti Mahattaya, meaning Little Master, damaged a pair of three-wheeler taxis bringing traffic, and the festivities to an abrupt halt after something in the crowd disturbed him. As hundreds watched him, the 3m (10ft) beast then set off down the road with a team of mahouts – elephant drivers giving chase. However, Chooti proved to be no Dumbo, slinking off to the shops to try to get them off his tail in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo.
2007-07-22 - Kurunegala, Sri Lanka. Pushpakumara Jayaratne
A mahout at the annual Dalada Poson Perehera in Kurunegala was injured last Friday night when he was attacked by one of three elephants who ran amok. The victim has been admitted to Kurunegala base hospital. Two of the elephants belonged to the Dalada Maligawa while the third belonged to the Etkanda Viharaya in Kurunegala. Hospitals sources said the condition of the mahout was not serious and he had been attacked by one of the Maligawa elephants. As a result of the incident a commotion ar...
2007-07-08 - Kandy, Sri Lanka. MySriLankaTravel
The significance of this perahera dates to 310 AD when the tooth relic of Buddha was brought from India. For two weeks at the end of July and in to the first few day's of august, elephants parade the street at night, officials and chieftains wear traditional costume and dancers leap to the timeless rhythm of the drums. The elephants are decorated with ornate regalia and battery operated light, adding to the spectacle.
2007-06-18 - Pinnawela, Sri Lanka. ARNE BIRKENSTOCK
The destiny of 16-years-old Chandani from Sri Lanka is closely bound to a little injured elephant, who has been taken in the elephant orphan hospital of the Pinnawela National Park. If she succeeds in feeding the animal, her father - the main mahout of the elephant hospital and known as elephant whisperer thoughout the whole country – will teach her to be the first female mahout in Sri Lanka. If she fails and the animal dies, she will have to bury her dream, not being able to fulfill the mahou...
2007-05-13 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The number of elephants that die from gunshot injuries in Sri Lanka has increased since automatic weapons were provided to home guards in villages under terrorist threat, Wildlife Department figures point out. Some 160 elephants died in the North Western Wildlife Zone last year, and 23 of them were victims of home guards’ guns. Over 200 elephants died last year in Sri Lanka due to human-elephant conflict.
2007-04-30 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. K. G. H. MUNIDASA
Over 50 years ago, this story concerning a she elephant at the Dehiwala Zoological Gardens was published in the local press. Meena was a very docile animal and her keepers had no problem looking after her. But one day, she started to behave in an unusual manner. She strained at her fetters in obvious excitement as if trying to free herself. The crowds of visitors gave her wide berth, thinking that something unforeseen had befallen the poor beast. Meena behaved in this manner for over 36 hours.
2007-04-26 - Lunugamvehera, Sri Lanka. Tharuka Dissanaike
Another elephant death was reported the week before from Lunugamvehera. There is no real count of the number of elephants that have died in this area after several failed drives by the Department of Wildlife Conservation. The number can conservatively be put around 12 deaths both within and outside the park boundaries. Villagers in the area believe however that the number is much higher: We have lived for many centuries with elephants. We are not asking them to be driven away. But farmers need s...
2007-04-23 - Udawalawe, Sri Lanka.
Ten elephant cubs who were brought up in Sri Lanka's 'Ath Athuru Sevana' interim elephant camp were released to the jungles today. The elephants were the seventh batch of their like to be released to the forest. The Ath Athuru Sevana interim elephant camp in Udawalawe has so far released 56 elephants into the jungle. All of them were orphan cubs who were found throughout the country and brought up there. The Wildlife Department monitors their lives even after they are released to the forest.
2007-04-07 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Gagani Weerakoon
Amidst reports of an unprecedented number of elephants dying of starvation at the Lunugamwehera National Park, the government yesterday launched a full scale probe into the death of a wild elephant due to negligence by wildlife officials. Environment Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka told the Daily Mirror it was reported that three officials had failed to take swift action to save the elephant stuck in a cesspit on Wednesday as they were ‘watching a world cup cricket match, despite continuous ...
2007-04-01 - Lunugamvehera National Park, Sri Lanka. Kumudini Hettiarachchi
Is the very move – relocating elephants in the national parks – aimed at protecting these majestic animals killing them? Several of the elephants, about 250 herded into the Lunugamvehera Park, under two phases of an elephant drive that began in 2005, may have died for lack of food, resulting in malnourishment and disease, The Sunday Times learns, after a visit to the area this week. What will be the fate of the remaining elephants, considering that the dry season is just starting?
2007-03-26 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
In October 1995 a group of Sri Lankans and Americans met at the Taprobane Sri Lanka restaurant in New York City, convened by Conservation Biologist, Ravi Corea to incorporate the Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society (SLWCS). The project known as Saving Elephants by Helping People has been in operation for the past 10 years and has installed 41 Kilometers of electric fencing since its inception.
2007-03-10 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Walter Jayawardhana
An army search operation found the eight bullet ridden bodies of two army officers, two army soldiers, the officer in charge of the Wilpattu Wild Life Park and three wild life rangers, believed tortured and killed by the rogue cadres of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The men men were in the Wilpattu Park making a feasibility study of repairing the Ikiriyagolla Irrigation Tank which was the main source of water for the large herds of wild elephants in the park.
2007-03-09 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka Wild Life Conservation Department sources revealed that over the last 15 years, 1,850 elephants, 1,192 of them, male, have been reported killed. This has reduced the country's dwindling elephant population from 4000 to 2000. Wild Life Conservation Department points out that every year, around 150 elephants and between 50-70 human die because of man-elephant conflict. Data from Sri Lanka’s wildlife conservation department point to an increasing trend.
2007-03-04 - Yala National Park, Sri Lanka. Kumudini Hettiarachchi
Startling new research indicates that the very humans, in many instances the much-maligned chena (slash-and-burn) cultivators, who come into conflict with elephants, could be made partners in the protection and conservation of these animals they consider their enemies. And this thinking, based on scientific research is about to be tried out as a pilot project in the south by the Department of Wildlife Conservation and scientists keen to see the elephant survive in a country that lays claim to be...
2007-02-24 - Galle, Sri Lanka. Irangika RANGE
JUMBO FAIR: While creating an exhilarating, competitive and fun atmosphere for over 600 of foreign spectators and players and raising awareness of the plight of the Asian Domestic Elephants, SriLankan Airlines (SLA) sponsored the sixth Annual Ceylon Elephant Polo Association (CEPA) tournament which was concluded at the magnificent historical ramparts of Fort of Galle last week. The event comprising eight international teams including 50 foreign players and two local teams such as Sri Lanka Army ...
2007-02-23 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Nimal S.Bogahawatta
The successive governments since independence have failed to find a solution to the human elephant conflict that resulted in massive destruction of human lives, land and fields and the extinction of elephant population in the country, which is a national asset. 400 houses were among the property destroyed by wild elephants. The people in affected areas said the electric fence now being erected by Lunugamvehera Wildlife Conservation office is only a temporary measure.
2007-02-16 - PINNAWELA, Sri Lanka. Dharme Sri ABEYRATNE
"Migara", born on June 23, 2001, is the first baby of "Menika". His grandmother is "Komali" which was among the first five orphans when the orphanage started in 1975. Migara weighs 975 Kilos and his height is five feet five inches. Migara will be airlifted to China. His two keepers (mahouts), a veterinary surgeon and an assistant curator of the orphanage will accompany Migara and stay in China until he gets used to the Chinese language and food.
2007-02-15 - GALLE, Sri Lanka. Simon Gardner, Reuters
The four-ton elephant threw off his mahout and American rider as the island's sixth annual elephant polo tournament got under way, rampaging off the pitch and crushing the Spanish team's minibus with his head. Spanish horseback polo player and horse breeder Inigo de Arteaga, the Marquis de Tavara from north of Madrid, is used to injuries. "You can fall any time, it can be an elephant, pony, a horse. Last year I broke my wrist. Two years ago I broke two ribs," he said, looking at the remains of h...
2007-02-14 - Galle, Sri Lanka.
From the 14th – 17th February 2007, at least eight international teams will be fighting it out at the southern seaside town of Galle, Sri Lanka to participate in the 6th Annual International Elephant Tournament. The tournament is hosted by CEPA (Ceylon Elephant Polo Association).
2007-02-13 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The plight of Sri Lankan elephants has been thrown into the spotlight as the 6th Annual Ceylon Elephant Polo Association (CEPA) tournament opens tomorrow. As fears grow that the Sri Lankan elephant could become extinct by the end of the 21st century, Sri Lankan wildlife personality Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne has been speaking out. The tournament, which runs from 14 - 17 February, will hold a number of events to raise money for the Sri Lankan elephant.
2007-02-04 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Childers Jayawardhana
Eminent conservationist, intellectual, excellent administrator and lover of music, Lyn de Alwis passed away on November 22, 2006. The demise of Lyn de Alwis, who rendered a great service to both the Zoological Gardens and the Wildlife Service in Sri Lanka and in foreign lands is a loss to the nation and the world. His love of the wilderness, the natural environment was second nature to him from his younger days.
2007-02-04 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The streets of Colombo transform under the weight of 100 colourful elephants during February's full moon. The event usually has as many as 1000 performers. The Navam Perahera, which started in 1979, attracts more than a million spectators every year to the Gangaramaya Temple, at Hunupitiya on the banks of the picturesque Beira Lake.
2007-02-02 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. ColomboPage News Desk
Sri Lanka's Association of the Owners of Tamed Elephants has requested from the government to provide them elephants or to allow them to catch them. The Chairman of the Association of the Owners of Tamed Elephants, Nilanga Dela Bandara says that Sri Lanka now has only 150 tamed elephants and 120 of them are over sixty years old. He pointed out that only six elephants are eligible for carrying caskets in religious processions.
2007-01-25 - Yala, Sri Lanka. THARUKA DISSANAIKE
Sri Lankas only known crossed-tusk elephant in the wild, known locally as Dalaputtuwa dies of paralysis caused by gunshot wounds in the periphery of a highly protected national park. The tusker, a rare sight in Sri Lankan jungles, was shot by 35-year old Punchi Banda Samarathunge as he stood guard over his war zone-bordering village on the outskirts of the National Park with a T-56 rifle.
2007-01-16 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. ColomboPage News Desk
Sixty-four wild elephants and twenty people died in Sri Lanka's North Western Wild Life Zone in 2006 as a result of human-elephant conflict, according to figures from the Department of Wild Life Conservation. Six of the 64 dead wild elephants were tuskers, the Department said. Hunting for tusks, shooting to avoid crop damage, railway accidents and poisoning were the major causes for the elephant deaths.
2007-01-11 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. ColomboPage News Desk
Sri Lanka will present an elephant calf to China next month to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Cabinet spokesperson Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa said, “As a token of remembrance, an elephant-calf, ‘Migara’, would be presented to the people of China.”
2006-12-05 - Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka.
A she-elephant with a young cub collided with the night mail train from Colombo to Polonnaruwa yesterday. Both died on the spot, derailing the train and paralysing train services on the line for more than 24 hours. The Sri Lanka Wild Life Department says at least 13 elephants have died since January 2006 in railway accidents between the Minneriya and Galoya railway stations in the Polonnaruwa district of the North Central Province.
2006-11-17 - Kandy, Sri Lanka. Jamie Lorimers
There are about 3 000 wild elephants and more than 20 million people in Sri Lanka, an island the size of Ireland. Before the Brits arrived at the end of the eighteenth century there were less than a million people and many, many more elephants. We shot the majority of them, destroyed their habitat for tea and (perhaps indirectly) catalysed a human population explosion.
2006-11-12 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Vindya Amaranayake
The Wildlife Conservation Department has temporarily halted plans to capture and auction two rogue elephants in the Galgamuwa-Maho area, upon protests by the environmental activists, The Nation learns. The department was planning to anaesthetise and capture the two elephants, and auction them on the site on November 9 and 10, and sell them to the highest bidders.
2006-10-25 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Manshark
I was watching a tv prog today about Sri Lankan Elephants. And what did I learn from it? I really don’t know for it left me asking more questions at the end than I had at the beginning. At the end of the day, which ones are the best? Those born in shelter who knows not the ways of the world? OR Those born in the wild who knows not common decency and self-respect?
2006-10-20 - Udawalawe, Sri Lanka. Ranil Amarasuriya
A Sri Lankan elephant (Elephas maximus maximus) ponders an incursion by photographers while having a light snack in the Udawalawe National Park. Captured on August 14th 2006 with a Canon EOS 30D (EF 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 III) on aperture priority (f/5.6) with a resultant shutter speed of 1/1250th of a second at ISO 400
2006-10-09 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Wild elephants dragged two women and a seven-year-old girl out of their huts and then crushed them to death in a village in eastern Sri Lanka, plocal police officer AWA Gafar said on Monday. The elephants entered the village of Mohinipuram in Ampara district at dusk on Sunday, charging at residents and creating panic among villagers. He said the elephants pulled the victims from their homes then killed them.
2006-06-14 - Pinnawela, Sri Lanka.
AN elephant named 'Kiri' gave birth on Friday at the Pinnawela to a male calf weighing 75kilo. This was the 36th elephant birth in the orphanage's 31-year history, Veterinary Surgeon Samanthi Mendis said. The Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage was started in 1975 by the Department of Wildlife. The newborn has taken the number of elephants at the orphanage to 76.
2006-05-18 - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka.
Some of Sri Lanka's wildest, most destructive elephants will be getting a reprieve despite their bad behaviour - but they'll have to spend some time in rehab first. Elephants that rampage through villages, destroying crops or killing people, will be caught, tamed and put to work in the conservation department, an official said Thursday.
2006-05-04 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Wild Life Department sources reveal that the number of deaths in human-elephant conflicts in Sri Lanka has increased rapidly. Today an average of 150 elephants are killed annually by people, while the elephants kill an average of around 40 people per year. These averages rose from 50 elephant deaths and 12 human deaths per year at the end of the 1980s.
2006-02-11 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI
Dozens of captive elephants raised funds for their upkeep Saturday by running races, and playing tug-of-war and dancing to the rhythm of traditional drums, during an elephant show in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Elephant trainers maneuvered their animals - draped in bright colored cloths - through a lively game of polo amid loud cheers from the boisterous crowd, most of whom were children.
2006-02-04 - Lusaka, Sri Lanka.
Three wild elephants which have sustained injuries from landmines buried in Ganshapuram along Sri Lanka Government controlled Mannar-Vavuniya Road Wednesday morning have crossed over into the jungles at the Madhu side. Wild Department officials and veterinary surgeons are reported to have refused to enter the forest located in the Liberation Tigers controlled area to treat the elephants, sources said.
2006-01-28 - Galle, Sri Lanka.
The 5th Taprobane Trophy Elephant Polo Championships heralded the welcome return of international sport to the South Coast of Srilanka for the first time since the tsunami. The coastal towns and villages along the south & western seaboards of Sri Lanka have worked resiliently in the quest to successfully rise & rebuild from the destruction of Dec 26 2004.
2005-07-26 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The Environment Ministry has begun a project to move about 160 wild elephants, currently roaming the public roads in the Kurunegala district, back to protected areas. The action is meant to save the lives of both humans and beasts.According to Environment Minister A.H.M. Fowzie, the main goal of the project is to minimize conflict between man and elephant and save the lives of both. The wild elephants will be driven back to Wilpaththu and Thabbowa sanctuaries.
2005-04-28 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Following a request from the Sri Lankan government, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has decided to help protect the country's elephants. A proposal was submitted by the Sri Lankan government to the ADB asking for Rs. 51 million for this purpose. However, the funds have not been finalized yet.
2004-12-23 - Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka.
"A very tragic incident, but no one's fault" An express train has collided with a herd of wild elephants in Sri Lanka. One elephant was killed and two others badly injured in the accident in Anuradhapura district, about 160km (100 miles) north of the capital Colombo. The train's engine was derailed in the collision, but none of the 500 passengers was hurt.
2004-12-20 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Florence Wickramage, Sri Lanka Daily News
Two more wild elephants met with a railway accident Friday morning at the 137 and a half mile post on the Habarana-Kantale Railway track. The she elephant was seriously injured while the young elephant died on the spot. This is the second accident to occur at the very spot which claimed the lives of two wild elephants nearly two months ago.
2004-10-18 - Colombo, Sri Lanka.
In an unprecedented move a group of Asian elephant conservationists were taken on a tour of the conservation and research sites in Kenya. The group consisted of thirteen individuals from eight Asian countries.
2004-10-06 - KEGALLA, Sri Lanka. R.K. Radhakrishnan
It was eight years ago that Sama was brought to the Pinnewala elephant orphanage here. The cow-elephant had lost a leg when it stepped on a landmine in the northern jungles. It was about five then. Today, the orphanage veterinarian, Chandana Rajapaksa, is worried.
2004-10-02 - Pinnawela, Sri Lanka. Florence Wickramage
The Elephant Orphanage at Pinnawela will be upgraded as the Elephant Conservation and Breeding Centre and the entire complex including the large extent of land will be redesigned to afford more protection and movement facilities for elephants.
2004-09-02 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Reuters
Sri Lanka has closed its biggest wildlife reserve because a severe drought has dried up watering holes and left wild elephants thirsty, angry and ready to charge, park officials say.
2004-07-30 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Helen Pilcher
A rare albino elephant has been spotted roaming Sri Lanka's Ruhunu National Park, the first recorded sighting in the country. The pale-skinned pachyderm, thought to be around 11 years old, lives with a 17-strong herd of adult females and youngsters. Tracking the herd's movements could help researchers devise new strategies for the protection and management of Sri Lanka's elephants.
1999-01-23 - Colombo, Sri Lanka. Wimalaratne O, Kodikara DS.Department of Rabies Diagnosis and Research, Medical Research Institute
Wimalaratne O, Kodikara DS.
2024-04-26 - Blackpool, United Kingdom.
The latest round of pregnancy tests at Blackpool Zoo has revealed that two of its elephants are expecting babies. Mother and daughter Noorjahan and Esha are both pregnant and due to give birth in late...
2024-04-02 - Sen Monorom, Cambodia.
There was sad news from Mondulkiri Province, with the death of 2 year old elephant “Chi Pich” being announced. Sources from the Elephant Livelihood Initiative Environment Organization (ELIE) said ...
2024-03-26 - Kochi, India.
Popular tusker Mangalamkunnu Ayyappan, 55, 55, died at Mangalamkunnu in Palakkad on Monday. The elephant owned by M A Haridasan had been under treatment for the past few months.
The 76th elephant calf was born at the Rambukkana Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage on March 20.This baby elephant was born to 32-year-old she-elephant Shanthi and 19-year-old Pandu at the Pinnawala Elepha...
2024-03-23 - Pretoria, South Africa.
In the ongoing efforts to curb poaching and snaring of animals within the Zimbabwe and Mozambique borders, South African National Parks (SANParks) is working to create more partnerships with neighbour...
2024-03-15 - , United States.
After weeks of voting and thousands of submissions, the Toledo Zoo has officially chosen the name of their precious baby elephant and we're personally thrilled about the news! Ladies and gentleman, Ki...
2024-03-09 - Tucson, United States.
A baby elephant was born at Reid Park Zoo. The zoo said Semba, the facility’s African elephant matriarch, gave birth to a 265-pound calf around 3:31 a.m. Friday, March 8. Reid Park Zoo said the calf...
2024-03-04 - Copenhagen, Denmark.
A female baby elephant in Copenhagen Zoo has been named Chin after the Tha Chin river in central Thailand. The elephant was born last week in the Danish zoo. The zookeepers, who take care of the young...
2024-02-29 - Alappuzha, India.
Evoor Kannan, the elephant known for his murderous rage and with a history of killing two mahouts is in a bad mood these days. He had been gentle under the care of his former Mahout Sharath Parippally...
2024-02-20 - Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands.
African elephant Punda has become the mother of a healthy elephant calf after a 22-month pregnancy. This is the third calf born in the Safari Park Beekse Bergen k in four months. Never before have thr...
2024-02-15 - Pittsburgh, United States.
The zoo said Tsuni died Thursday after a sudden, brief battle with elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV). Her EEHV was detected through routine blood testing on Feb. 8, even though she presente...
2024-02-15 - Seoul, South Korea.
The oldest female elephant in South Korea passed away Tuesday at a zoo in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, at the age of 59, zoo officials said Thursday. The female elephant, named Sakura, had suffered fr...
2024-01-30 - Bangalore, India.
The Bannerghatta Biological Park is brimming with excitement as it welcomes a delightful new addition—a baby boy elephant calf. This adorable arrival brings the elephant count in the Bannerghatta zo...
2024-01-27 - Guruvayur, India.
Elephant Kannan, of the Guruvayur Devaswom Elephant Camp, a nine-time winner of the festival-related elephant race, has passed away. His demise was around 5:30 pm on Saturday. The tusker's age at the ...
2024-01-27 - Koh Nhek, Cambodia.
Villagers found a baby elephant dead in Koh Nhek district, Mondulkiri province in the middle of the forest on January 26, 2024, suspected of being shot. Mondulkiri Provincial department of environm...
2024-01-13 - Beijing, China.
A recent study published in the journal eLife has uncovered new findings on the development of dextrous trunks by indigenous elephants. According to Dr. Shi-Qi Wang, a senior author of the research, t...
2024-01-13 - Pekanbaru, Indonesia.
The Tesso Nilo National Park in Pelalawan District, Riau Province, again lost one of its Sumatran elephants (Elephas maximus sumatranus) after a poacher allegedly killed it for its tusks. The 46-year...
2024-01-11 - New York, United States.
In a narrow but sprawling curatorial space at the uptown museum, The Secret World of Elephants, now opened, tells the story of elephant species and their relatives through life-size models, videos, gr...
2024-01-11 - Mysore, India.
In response to the escalating threat posed by leopards, elephants and other wild animals in the Mysuru region, specialised task forces have been established to address the situation. A dedicated Leopa...
2024-01-04 - Los Angeles, United States.
The Los Angeles Zoo is grieving the death of 53-year-old Asian elephant Shaunzi. Zoo staff observed that Shaunzi was unable to stand up in her exhibit at around 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday night, according t...
