I do not know how Galgamuwe Chandi earned his nickname. Maybe he was aggressive by nature or due to circumstances; a creature inclined to be playful but who was sometimes or even frequently over enthusiastic, perhaps. Who renamed him 'Chandi,' for he was first known as 'Eka Danthaya' or ‘Single Tusked One’? Is he a rogue elephant? Was he always a rogue elephant? Did he become a rogue elephant? Was belligerence foisted on him and if so by whom?
Rogue elephants. Academics don’t use that term these days. They talk instead of ‘problem-elephants,’ those who are ill-tempered, who destroy crops and houses almost willy-nilly, and attack and kill humans.
I don't know Galgamuwe Chandi’s track record, but this is what Supun Lahiru Prakash had to say of him.
‘This is Galgamuwe Chandi’s final journey! The Eka Danthaya of Galgamuwa is about to undertake another fateful journey. On each of the three occasions he was captured in the Ehetuwewa area of Galgamuwa and relocated elsewhere, Chandi returned to his home. This time, slated to be relocated in the Maduru Oya National Park, the chances of Chandi not returning are extremely high.
‘In 2009 Chandi was taken to the Somawathi National Park but within 28 days he returned to his home territory having walked 243 kilometres. Twice thereafter, i.e. in 2015 and 2018, he was taken to the elephant holding ground in Horowpathana. He returned on both occasions.
‘He is old now. His sight is weak. Therefore his is a fateful journey undertaken not because he destroyed corps or property; he had consumed the illicit liquor of rogue brewers. This is elephant protection in Sri Lanka. It is clearly unscientific and outdated.
‘Can you and I, knowing all this, look askance and remain silent?
‘His repeated returns clearly show that there is no territory more suitable for Chandi. So let him spend his last years in the land of his birth. I appeal to those responsible that if this is not possible then place a GSP collar and keep track of his movements.’
Chandi is not an exception when it comes to the behaviour of relocated elephants. A study conducted on this issue a little over 10 years ago by Prithiviraj Fernando, Peter Leimgruber, Tharaka Prasad and Jennifer Pastoring (‘Problem-elephant translocation: translocating the problem and the elephant?’) published in the PLOS ONE journal revealed that of 12 translocated elephants monitored, 2 were shot dead within the parks to which they had been released while the rest had left the area, almost all of them moving towards the captured sites.
The research team, while observing that over 70% of the approximately 6,000 elephants in Sri Lanka live outside protected areas and that the human-elephant conflict (HEC) claims the lives of over 70 humans and 200 elephants annually, advocate, ‘advocate phasing out problem-elephant translocation, for which public awareness is key,’ based on findings. They recommend, in the interim, that ‘translocations should only be undertaken with monitoring through GPS-telemetry, and contingency plans to address unintended outcomes, [pointing out that] problem-elephant translocation without either amounts to reckless disregard for the safety and welfare of people and elephants.
In
the long term, they say, ‘attention needs to be shifted towards
preventing the genesis of ‘problem-elephants’. Such a strategy requires
eliminating elephant management and crop protection methods that promote
elephant aggression and increase HEC, and implementing land-use plans
that minimize crop raiding.’
It is a complex problem, clearly.
Translocating the problem is not a sustainable solution. Whether or not
relevant decisions in this regard are informed by science is something
we need to know. I shall leave all that, as any lay person should, to
authorities and scientists.
My worry is that we, as humans,
while being quick to pin the ‘problem’ label on elephants, are loath to
turn the mirror on ourselves, our species and the problem-creatures and
rogues among us. Of course we are human-centric. We don’t know the
language of elephants and can’t really sit down, discuss and come to a
mutually agreeable solution with them. That said, there’s nothing to
stop us from acknowledging that we are an invasive and destructive
species. When an elephant damages crops or a house, we use the term
‘rogue.’ However, when we invade and annex the habitats of elephants we
don’t admit ‘we are bloody rogues.’ Instead we say ‘this is for
development.’
There are problem elephants. There are 'problem
human beings.' That’s a problem we need to acknowledge in the first
instance. Then we can and should talk about co-existence.
Galgamuwe
Chandi. Where will he be tomorrow? And the day after, will he turn back
if he could? Would he be shot? He is weak, visually impaired and old.
The next time we hear of him it could be about Eka Danthaya having been
shot. He would most likely be moving in the direction of ‘home.’
If
I find myself in a strange land, it would be in the direction of home
that I would want to be walking or looking when death arrives. That much
I can say. How about you?
malindadocs@gmail.com
Other articles in this series:
The 'inhuman' elephant in a human zoo
Ivan Art: Ivanthi Fernando's efforts to align meaning
Let's help Jagana Krishnakumar rebuild our ancestral home
Do you have a friend in Pennsylvania (or anywhere?)
A gateway to illumination in West Virginia
Through strange fissures into magical orchards
There's sea glass love few will see
Re-residencing Lakdasa Wikkramasinha
Poisoning poets and shredding books of verse
The responsible will not be broken
Ownership and tenuriality of the Wissahickon
Did you notice the 'tiny, tiny wayside flowers'?
Gifts, gifting and their rubbishing
Journalism inadvertently learned
Reflections on the young poetic heart
Wordaholic, trynasty and other portmanteaus
The 'Loku Aiya' of all 'Paththara Mallis'
Subverting the indecency of the mind
Character theft and the perennial question 'who am I?'
Saji Coomaraswamy and rewards that matter
Seeing, unseeing and seeing again
Alex Carey and the (small) matter of legacy
The insomnial dreams of Kapila Kumara Kalinga
The clothes we wear and the clothes that wear us (down)
Every mountain, every rock, is sacred
Manufacturing passivity and obedience
Sanjeew Lonliyes: rawness unplugged, unlimited
In praise of courage, determination and insanity
The relative values of life and death
Poetry and poets will not be buried
Reunion Peradeniya (1980-1990)
Sorrowing and delighting the world
Encounters with Liyanage Amarakeerthi
Letters that cut and heal the heart
A forgotten dawn song from Embilipitiya
The soft rain of neighbourliness
Reflections on waves and markings
Respond to insults in line with the Akkosa Sutra
The right time, the right person
The silent equivalent of a thousand words
Crazy cousins are besties for life
The lost lyrics of Premakeerthi de Alwis
Consolation prizes in competitions no one ever wins
Blackness, whiteness and black-whiteness
Inscriptions: stubborn and erasable
Deveni: a priceless one-word koan
Recovering run-on lines and lost punctuation
'Wetness' is not the preserve of the Dry Zone
On sweeping close to one's feet
Kumkum Fernando installs Sri Lanka in Coachella, California
To be an island like the Roberts...
Debts that can never be repaid in full
An island which no flood can overwhelm
A melody faint and yet not beyond hearing
Heart dances that cannot be choreographed
Remembering to forget and forgetting to remember
Authors are assassinated, readers are immortal
It is good to be conscious of nudities
Saturday slides in after Monday and Sunday somersaults into Friday
There's a one in a million and a one in ten
Kumkum Fernando installs Sri Lanka in Coachella, California
Hemantha Gunawardena's signature
Architectures of the demolished
The exotic lunacy of parting gifts
Who the heck do you think I am?
Those fascinating 'Chitra Katha'
So how are things in Sri Lanka?
The sweetest three-letter poem
Teams, team-thinking, team-spirit and leadership
The songs we could sing in lifeboats when we are shipwrecked
Jekhan Aruliah set a ball rolling in Jaffna
Awaiting arrivals unlike any other
Teachers and students sometimes reverse roles
Colombo, Colombo, Colombo and so forth
The slowest road to Kumarigama, Ampara
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Mind and hearts, loquacious and taciturn
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On separating the missing from the disappeared
And intangible republics will save the day (as they always have)
The circuitous logic of Tony Muller
Rohana Kalyanaratne, an unforgettable 'Loku Aiya'
Mowgli, the Greatest Archaeologist
Figures and disfigurement, rocks and roses
Sujith Rathnayake and incarcerations imposed and embraced
Some stories are written on the covers themselves
A poetic enclave in the Republic of Literature
Landcapes of gone-time and going-time
The best insurance against the loud and repeated lie
So what if the best flutes will not go to the best flautists?
There's dust and words awaiting us at crossroads and crosswords
A song of terraced paddy fields
Of ants, bridges and possibilities
From A through Aardvark to Zyzzyva
Words, their potency, appropriation and abuse
Who did not listen, who's not listening still?
If you remember Kobe, visit GOAT Mountain
The world is made for re-colouring
No 27, Dickman's Road, Colombo 5
Visual cartographers and cartography
Ithaca from a long ago and right now
Lessons written in invisible ink
The amazing quality of 'equal-kindness'
The interchangeability of light and darkness
Sisterhood: moments, just moments
Chess is my life and perhaps your too
Reflections on ownership and belonging
The integrity of Nadeesha Rajapaksha
Signatures in the seasons of love
To Maceo Martinet as he flies over rainbows
Fragrances that will not be bottled
Colours and textures of living heritage
Countries of the past, present and future
Books launched and not-yet-launched
The sunrise as viewed from sacred mountains
Isaiah 58: 12-16 and the true meaning of grace
The age of Frederick Algernon Trotteville
Live and tell the tale as you will
Between struggle and cooperation
Neruda, Sekara and literary dimensions
Paul Christopher's heart of many chambers
Calmness gracefully cascades in the Dumbara Hills
Serendipitous amber rules the world
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