WILDLIFE-SRI LANKA: Animal Lovers Up in Arms Against Zoo

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Feb 16 1998 (IPS) - A Sri Lankan elephant, who thrilled adults and children at a city zoo for more than 15 years, has been drawn into a tug-of-war between authorities and animal lovers after he killed two handlers and had to be auctioned.

Twenty-year-old Raja was sold at a public auction at the Dehiwela Zoo, Sri Lanka’s biggest zoo, to the highest bidder — a local gem dealer for 15,000 dollars, after zoo authorities said the elephant had been declared dangerous.

But animal rights activists have challenged the decision to send Raja away from the zoo. ‘Sathva Mithra’ or friends of animals, a private group has threatened to take the zoo authorities to court.

Sagarika Rajakarunayake, president of ‘Sathva Mithra’ created a stir at the auction on Feb. 9 when she interrupted the bidding to lecture the large, well-heeled crowd that Raja was being treated “unfairly”.

Raja will be put to work, alongside other domesticated elephants, on the large coconut and rubber plantations where elephants drag logs and do other work. Elephant owners hire out their animals to earn money for their costly upkeep. They are also used in the bigger Buddhist temples at ceremonial pageants.

Eighteen years ago, Raja was rescued from a large pit in the northwest jungles of Sri Lanka and brought to the unique elephant orphanage at Pinawella.

When he was just three years old, he was packed off to the Dehiwela Zoo where he was trained to perform tricks and dances with a group of other elephants. His dance-and-roar routine at the elephant dance arena in the zoo, every Sunday, was a great hit with the zoo’s young and adult visitors.

However, last December, in a fit of rage, Raja trampled his mahout to death. That was not the only incident. A year ago, while being led for a performance, he had pinned his keeper to the wall and crushed him to death.

After the first attack, Raja was barred from the weekly performances and kept chained. Following the second attack, an official inquiry said the animal was dangerous and should not be kept at the zoo, but disposed off.

Nandana Atapattu, deputy director of Sri Lanka’s Wild Life Department and a member of the zoo’s advisory committee, defended the decision. “When he goes to an individual owner, he would be looked after better”, Atapattu said.

“In a similar case in California about six months ago, the elephant was shot dead. But we are not doing that here,” he argued. Zoo director Senarath Gunasena said Raja’s fate had been decided by a judicial officer, and not by the zoo.

Gem merchant Nilanka Dela from Ratnapura, a city famous for gemstones, said that he and his men would be able to tame the unpredictable Raja.

But Rajakarunayake said the authorities have not decided in the best interest of the elephant. “… all that happened was that Raja was sold to the highest bidder at an auction,” she said. It appears that money is only what matters and not the welfare of the animal, according to her.

Animal rights activists say this is probably the first time the sale of an animal is being challenged in court. There have been a few occasions earlier when the zoo similarly sold elephants.

Rajakarunayake said that their intention is not to demand that the animal be kept at the zoo but that he should be looked after by an experienced keeper who would tame and train the elephant.

She said the elephant should stay in the custody of the zoo, even if they must keep Raja out of the zoo premises in the interests of public safety.

“If the zoo director did not want to keep the elephant, he could well have considered rehabilitating it at the elephant orphanage, where there is sufficient space for this purpose, or even at a temple which has other elephants,” she said in a separate statement.

“Raja is a fine specimen of a male elephant, who seems to be happy to be close to female elephants at the zoo. Surely a female could have been introduced to Raja as a strategy towards rehabilitating him,” she added.

Indeed a misty-eyed Raja refused to get into the vehicle that was taking him to a new home after the auction. The authorities then had a female elephant who had befriended Raja loaded on to the vehicle to lure Raja. Raja was then tranquillised and taken

away, sans his companion.

Animal lovers are urging a full probe into the sale. “There are various reasons being privately attributed for Raja’s irritable behaviour. Some say that he had an injury … and he was not properly handled by his keepers ..,” one activist said.

Raja had been a docile elephant and loved by all for 19 years “so how did he became dangerous?” the animal activist asked, while pressing for a full probe into the issue. For once, the sale of an elephant is being fought by animal rights campaigners in Sri Lanka.