When the law goes against elephants! - EDITORIAL

Whether elephants should be domesticated for cultural and religious purposes has been hotly debated over the recent years. Just when wild life enthusiasts thought that the ‘jumbos’ would be safe the CID informed the Magistrate Court days ago that cases filed against individuals for illegally keeping elephants cannot be continued with due to a recent gazette notification. The gazette notification now allows for the registration of domesticated elephants. 

Unlike before alert social media users and journalists working for mainstream media organisations have time and again underscored quite forcefully the plight of elephants in captivity. 
Following the gazette notification 13 individuals received their animals which were in state custody. 
Sri Lanka has had a long relationship with elephants and religious ties underscore how important the animal is when there are cultural and religious pageants. 

Even in recent times we read in newspapers where many chief priests were quoted saying that there was a dearth of domestic elephants that could be used for annual pageants. Representatives of Tamed Elephant Owners’ Association have affirmed that elephants in state custody must be released to temples for the purpose of preserving Buddhist culture. This association also opines that elephants at crowded orphanages could be released for this purpose. But what aristrocratic families and priests in temples fail to understand is that world opinion goes against the country when outsiders see the torture elephants are subjected to in the process of taming them. Even the animals who parade the streets under the care of their mahouts are heavily chained; largely to restrict these animals from taking huge steps and running amok. 

There have been many occasions where eyewitnesses have seen these chains having cut into the elephants’ skin. The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) just after independence in 1948 banned the capture of elephants. But despite the concerns raised by wildlife enthusiasts powerful individuals have continued in the business of capturing wild elephants. 

A survey done in 1985 showed that over 58% of elephant owners were making profits by raring these animals. Elephants are subjected to commercial use in Sri Lanka. When one considers the brutal taming process that an adult elephant must undergo to qualify for domestic use the point raised by critics that these majestic creatures are tortured can be justified. For the record the number of domesticated elephants in Sri Lanka is between 220-230. 
Animal lovers would refuse entertaining the thought of religious devotees that it brings merit upon the elephant carrying the casket at a temple pageant. Some say that Sri Lanka would never have been able to boast of a ‘Nadungamuwe Raja’-who is said to have shown a high level of intelligence-if it was never trained to be domesticated and featured in temple pageants. 

From a cultural perspective it is considered auspicious to see an elephant walking on the road. 
But put all that aside wildlife enthusiasts batting for elephants are up in arms and are in the process of seeking a court order to stop the implementation of the gazette notification that facilitates the release of elephants in state custody to their initial owners. 

Regardless of whoever who wins this struggle the Sri Lankan elephant is certainly undergoing a difficult time. Trouble awaits them out in the wild because the human-elephant conflict has aggravated. The bottom line to the Sri Lankan elephant saga is that they don’t have a trouble-free life both in the wild and in a domestic environment compared to other animals.