{"id":57857,"date":"2016-08-21T16:04:02","date_gmt":"2016-08-21T23:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=57857"},"modified":"2018-07-29T16:30:30","modified_gmt":"2018-07-29T23:30:30","slug":"cruelty-to-elephants-during-the-kandy-perahera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/08\/21\/cruelty-to-elephants-during-the-kandy-perahera\/","title":{"rendered":"CRUELTY TO ELEPHANTS DURING THE KANDY PERAHERA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sugath Samarasinghe<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

I am indeed very much moved by the letter of Concerned Citizens of Sri Lanka, Sentinels, Against Wildlife Crime that appeared in The Island of the 9th<\/sup> instant. I think the problems of elephants spread further than that. Unlike the elephants at the Perahera which are made to walk to Kandy and through the streets of that city for ten days, there are several elephants kept in captivity in the Zoo confined to a limited closed area in lifelong captivity.<\/p>\n

They are trained and made to perform a circus for the benefit of the visitors every Sunday evening. Although outwardly these animals seem to enjoy what they are made to do, I believe they hate all this being deprived of their free life in the jungles.<\/p>\n

In fact I do not think there is any justification as to maintaining a \u2018zoo\u2019 in this Buddhist country where so many animals are kept in confinement depriving their freedom in the wilds, mainly for the pleasure of human beings. I think the \u2018Sentinels Against Wild Life Crime\u2018should address these crimes too. Then there are many tourist hotels in this country who keep\/hire elephants to provide pleasure rides to foreign tourists, by walking the neighbourhoods carrying these visitors by which the hotels increase their income. I am sure this a \u2018wild life crime\u2019 too. I believe this could be easily sopped easier than stopping a use of elephants cultural event so many centuries old? If all this are reported as requested, their Face Book will be quite full!<\/p>\n

Then I believe, there are nearly a hundred young elephants imprisoned in a limited confine at the so called \u2018elephant orphanage\u2019 at Pinnawala. I wonder what the logic in that? Why cannot the rehabilitated animals be released to the wilds which is their homeland? I believe the government spends a substantial amount of money doing all that and also makes a substantial income displaying the poor \u2018prisoners\u2019 to the tourists. Would that not be a \u2018wild life crime\u2019 committed by the government itself. And add to the bargain, some of these hapless animals are allowed to have sex and are used for breeding outside their jungle habitat.<\/p>\n

The worst crime is that some of these new borns are donated by the government to foreign governments as expression of good will! Many of these animal babies are made to live in cages in cold climates and in freezing conditions in the winter unlike the elephants that are made to walk the streets of Kandy ten days an year. I am sure the Sentinels Against wild Life Crime will address these crimes too.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the elephant population in the wilds too do not appear to be safe. The same day\u00a0 Island\u2019 on page 2 has quoted the Deputy Minister of Wild Life stating that around 200 wild elephants are killed by farmers annually due to human- elephant conflict. I believe elephants in captivity do not die in such numbers.\u00a0 Veterinary Dr. Vijitha Perera in his book Living with Wild Elephants\u201d says that he is called upon to treat many elephants in the jungles injured by entanglement with wire traps and received gun shots injuries. These may be wild life crimes too that should concern us. I believe, the elephants that walk in the Kandy Perahera do not encounter such risks from the people viewing the spectacle adoring the elephants.<\/p>\n

The Deputy Minster had also stated that the elephant corridors in the jungles have been blocked by constructions by humans resulting in aggravating the elephant- human conflict, interrupting their free movement and that she will take action to restore them. In the light of all this I believe, the \u2018Sentinels Against wild Life Crime\u2019 could play a more meaningful role by helping her in this project rather than lamenting over the \u2018suffering\u2019 of the elephants who walk in the Perahera whose life are at least safe and are cared for. Who knows, if these Perahera elephants remained in the jungles some of them may have been killed by poachers and distressed farmers etc.?<\/p>\n

Sugath Samarasinghe<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sugath Samarasinghe I am indeed very much moved by the letter of Concerned Citizens of Sri Lanka, Sentinels, Against Wildlife Crime that appeared in The Island of the 9th instant. I think the problems of elephants spread further than that. Unlike the elephants at the Perahera which are made to walk to Kandy and through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,128],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism","category-sugath-samarasinghe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57857\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}