{"id":93350,"date":"2019-09-26T15:24:23","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T22:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=93350"},"modified":"2019-09-26T15:24:23","modified_gmt":"2019-09-26T22:24:23","slug":"tallest-elephant-in-sri-lanka-gets-armed-escort-%e2%80%89heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/09\/26\/tallest-elephant-in-sri-lanka-gets-armed-escort-%e2%80%89heres-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Tallest elephant in Sri Lanka gets armed escort.\u2009Here\u2019s why"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy The Hndustan Times<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Raja\u2019s owner said the government has allocated troops to provide security for his pet as it ambles along main roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Nadungamuwa
Nadungamuwa Raja, 65 years old, is an unofficial national treasure. (Facebook) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nadungamuwa Raja, 65 years old, is a celebrated elephant towering around 10.5 feet (3.2 metres) in height, the tallest tamed tusker in Sri Lanka. And he has his own armed guards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raja\u2019s owner said the government has allocated troops to provide security for his pet as it ambles along main roads to attend temple festivals across the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September 2015, a motorcyclist very nearly crashed into Raja. After seeing CCTV footage, the government contacted me and offered protection for Raja when he gets on the road,\u201d Harsha Dharmavijaya told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two regular handlers with Raja in addition to the military unit deployed to clear a path for the animal when it navigates crowded country roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raja is an unofficial national treasure because he is one of the few tuskers chosen to carry a casket of Buddha relics in an annual pageant at the most sacred Buddhist shrine on the island, the Temple of the Tooth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raja walks 90 kilometres (55 miles) to the hill resort of Kandy for the event, called the Esala pageant. He walks 25 to 30 kilometres a day, travelling mostly at night when it is cooler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pageant in August involves nearly 100 elephants and many more traditional dancers, fire-eaters and drummers, and is a key tourist attraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However animal rights campaigners say captive elephants are often maltreated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday an emaciated 70-year-old elephant called Tikiri<\/a> died, weeks after attending the Esala festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The animal was withdrawn from the finale of the Temple of the Tooth pageant last month after a social media firestorm erupted against parading the feeble animal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many rich Sri Lankans keep elephants as pets, but there have been numerous complaints of ill-treatment and cruelty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy The Hndustan Times Raja\u2019s owner said the government has allocated troops to provide security for his pet as it ambles along main roads. Nadungamuwa Raja, 65 years old, is a celebrated elephant towering around 10.5 feet (3.2 metres) in height, the tallest tamed tusker in Sri Lanka. And he has his own armed guards. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93350","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=93350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93350\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}