Columns

• Let Bhatiya’s death spurs the nation to act promptly to save elephants
  

There were no tears shed nor any wept by wailing women over the death of an elephant that had been fatally electrocuted in the jungles of Pothuvil this week due to an illegally laid live wire set by some farmers to protect their crops.

It died unwept, unsung and unmourned; its death merely marked another notch in the statistic books recording the rising toll of casualties in the perennial human-elephant conflict existing in villages.

This was quite unlike an animal-loving nation keeping vigil and a group of women weeping and wailing inconsolably when tusker Bhatiya died two weeks ago in the Mahawa jungles, where it was found with gunshot wounds suffered in May.

FALLEN ICON: Majestic tusker Bhatiya succumbs to gunshot wounds

It was not the first time Bhatiya had received bullet wounds. It had been shot in the leg while roaming the wilds of Nikaweratiya in February; its tusks, making it an inviting walking target, ivory hunters found impossible to resist. Twice shot, it had dragged its bullet-riddled leg to the vicinity of the Polpithigama tank, where it had fallen into an irrigation well. The fall aggravated its injuries and proved fatal.

Despite attempts by a veterinary team, led by former Peradeniya University Dean Professor Ashoka Dangolla, to save the majestic tusker, it succumbed to its gunshot injuries. Bhatiya was just 30 years of age.

In the aftermath of its death, while dirges were sung by a choir of women, the Wildlife Department revealed that thirteen more elephants, including two tuskers, were currently receiving treatment due to gunshot injuries.

Newspapers reported on Monday that wildlife authorities have discovered the carcasses of five wild elephants, including a tusker whose tusks had been removed.

Furthermore, it was also revealed that 198 wild elephants have died in the past seven months due to shootings, train and vehicle collisions, poaching, poisoning, and natural causes. What’s more, if that wasn’t enough of a count for the last seven months, four elephants died last Friday, two from a train accident and two from gunshots.

Bhatiya’s untimely death awoke the conscience of a nation to come face to face with a growing elephant crisis that, if left unaddressed as successive governments have done in the past, will decimate the elephant population that precariously still survives in Lankan jungles.

The tragic death of Bhatiya, whose tusks and majestic countenance earned him an endearing place in the hearts of those who lived in surrounding villages where he frequented as his habitat, and his place on the ecotourism map, has momentarily raised the human-elephant conflict from the grave where apathy had buried it, for public examination.

Two solid conclusions can be immediately drawn from even so cursory an examination before it’s shoved back into the grave and forgotten, until another majestic tusker meets the same fate. Both conclusions are obvious.

All elephants, be they with tusks or without tusks, are under threat. Tuskers are hunted down and shot for their prized ivory, while those bereft of tusks are shot as pests that destroy food crops. If the alarming rate of decimation of the elephant population continues in this country unabated, then, give or take a decade or two, or sooner, we will be witnessing the last of the elephant in the wild.

But now, when fate’s band has struck the last waltz for Lanka’s elephants, the heightened sense of awareness has placed the national spotlight on the daily struggle wild elephants wage unseen in dense jungles and revealed the hazardous existence these animals live, amidst gangs of ivory hunters seeking their tusks, avoiding traps set by farmers to protect their fields and food crops, dodging steel monsters that hurtle by on rail tracks unprotected by any fence.

Last week the Wildlife Department announced it is planning to launch a special operation that targets snares and trap guns. Wildlife Conservation Operation Director Ranjith Marasinghe said at a press briefing last Wednesday that about 20 percent of annual elephant deaths were caused by gunshots, 14 percent due to electrocution, and about 10 percent due to ‘hakke patas,’ a cruel and inhumane, locally made explosive device that explodes inside the mouth, blasting the elephant’s jaws, making it unable to eat.

In the wake of the public outcry that followed Bhatiya’s death, the government seems to have been galvanised into taking some action.

With more elephant deaths being reported this week and carcasses of long-killed jumbos being found—necessitating the environment minister to update the elephant death toll to 232 for the last 10 months of this year—it was clear the SOS call that was being trumpeted from the jungles could no longer be left ignored.

On Thursday afternoon, the President summoned relevant ministers and officials to the Presidential Secretariat for an emergency meeting to discuss the ongoing human-elephant conflict in greater depth.

As reported in the newspapers on Friday, the President, after being briefed on the current situation and the difficulties that institutions encountered in effectively meeting the crisis, had:

n Ordered that under no circumstances should wild elephants be subjected to harm or harassment.

He had thus rejected Agriculture Minister Lal Kantha’s method which he announced in Parliament last December of giving the go-ahead to farmers to take any measures to defend crops against wild animals foraging on their lands.

n Stressed the importance of identifying short, medium and long-term solutions to the human-elephant conflict.

n Directed officials to conduct in-depth assessments at the village level

n Noted that solutions need to be provided with political and public support.

n Issued instructions to relevant ministers and officials to immediately assign 5,000 members of the Civil Security Force as assistants to fill the prevailing shortage of human resources.

n Directed that more vehicles be allocated to officers of the Department of Wildlife, since the present shortage hinders officials from discharging their duties effectively. Immediate steps are to be taken to obtain cabs and motorcycles for this task.

n Ordered the prompt preparation and submission of necessary plans for the erection of an 800 kilometres electric fence.

n Called to restore 16 elephant corridors to prevent wild elephants from encroaching into villages.

It certainly seems an ambitious plan, with its success largely dependent on how best and how soon it is implemented. Instructions emanating from the ivory towers of power often have the nasty habit of getting stuck down the bureaucratic pipeline, unless each of their implementations is professionally monitored.

Or unless another majestic tusker meets the same sad fate that befell Bhatiya, and the human-elephant conflict is exhumed once more from its interred mass grave and reburied no sooner the ensuing fuss subsides.

X-Press Pearl resurfaces with Billion-dollar bounty for Lanka The ill-fated voyage of X-Press Pearl, the container vessel that freighted doom to Sri Lanka’s marine and economic life and sank off the Negombo coast four years ago, has resurfaced in a Supreme Court judgment delivered this week, with a billion-dollar bounty for the state. In a landmark judgment given by Chief Justice Murdu Fernando, just days before she retires from her 6-month tenure as Chief Justice, she ordered the non-state parties involved in the X-Press Pearl disaster to make an initial payment of one billion US dollars within one year as compensation for damages, with the first installment due by September 23 this year. CHIEF JUSTICE MURDU FERNANDO: Retires today In the unanimous five-judge bench judgement, the Supreme Court held that gross negligence and inaction by the Marine Environment Protection Authority, the Harbour Master, and other key state officials. State Minister of Urban Development Nalaka Godahewa was among those who failed in their duties to protect the public and the environment. The Supreme Court in its 361-page judgment held that the Attorney General infringed Article 12(1) by failing to indict the owner and operators of MV X-Press Pearl under Section 26(a) of the Marine Pollution Prevention Act. The court directed the owning and operating companies of X-Press Pearl to pay 1 billion US dollars as compensation for the massive environmental and economic damage caused by the 2021 maritime disaster, which the court described as the worst marine chemical catastrophe in recorded history for the Indian Ocean. It further held that the Attorney General also infringed Article 12(1) by unreasonably, irrationally, and arbitrarily instituting civil action in Singapore, rather than pursuing proceedings in the High Court of Sri Lanka exercising admiralty jurisdiction—a decision deemed not in the national interest. The Court ruled that the failure of state authorities to act effectively and timely infringed upon the fundamental rights of citizens under Articles 12 and 14 of the Constitution, including the right to engage in the lawful occupation of fishing. Upholding the ‘polluter pays’ principle, the Supreme Court held the vessel’s owners, charterers, and agents liable for compensating both the environmental degradation and socio-economic losses caused by their negligence. It ordered a Compensation Commission be set up under the Chairmanship of retired Supreme Court Judge Gamini Amarasekera. This commission will oversee how the billion-dollar compensation is distributed, with specific focus on affected fishing communities and restoration of marine ecosystems. Transparency International Sri Lanka, which filed the intervention petition to intervene in the case filed by the Centre for Environmental Justice, seeking fair compensation for the victims of the X-Press Pearl disaster, hailed the Supreme Court decision as a victory for the ‘critical need for transparency, institutional and corporate accountability, as well as stronger enforcement of legal obligations, to prevent future environmental harm, governance failures, and corruption.’ Tough doubts assail whether the billion-dollar award can be fiscally enforced against X-Press Pearl owner and operators; whether they will comply or not can be determined on September 23, when the initial installment is due for payment. But whether the Treasury receives it or not, Chief Justice Murdu Fernando will certainly retire as the Chief Justice in rich splendour, with her name indelibly engraved in the hallmark of records as the presiding Chief Justice of a unanimous 5-judge Supreme Court bench that made the highest financial award of a billion US dollars, or approximately Rs 300 billion. That will be one hard to beat for a long, long time to come. As you lay down your ermine this morning, as you fold up your wig and gown, we wish you a happy retirement and happy birthday, Your Ladyship.

India’s Santosh Jha meets Sanghamitta retinue’s Bo tree guardian descendants WELCOME: Indian High Commissioner Santosh Jha meets descendants of Indian guardians Indian High Commissioner Santosh Jha embarked on a voyage of discovery two weeks ago in search of a group of descendants whose Indian ancestors had settled down in the ancient capital of Lanka, Anuradhapura, over two thousand years ago. But they were a special lot, whose ancestors had not sailed on Vijaya’s vagabond ship but had sailed aboard the same ship that had borne Sanghamitta Theri to Lankan shores. Their ancestors were part of the retinue, comprising Bhikkhunis, princes, and craftsmen that Emperor Asoka had ordered to accompany his daughter Sanghamitta Theri as she brought in a bowl a sapling of the sacred Bodhi Tree at Buddha Gaya as a gift from her Royal Sire to King Devanampiyatissa of Lanka. They were the descendants of those in the entourage who opted to settle down in the island 2200 years ago and remain as the guardians of the sapling Bo Tree. Generations later, their progeny still do the same. The Indian High Commission has done its historical research exceptionally well, even delved into Buddhist texts, and says in a press release: “They settled down in villages around Tissa Wewa, close to temples that eventually gave names to the settlements, such as Vihara Bulankulama, Vihara Palugama, Vihara Kallanchiya and Vihara Medawachchiya. Based on the advice of Arhat Mahinda, the king is said to have asked subsequent generations of the lineage of Prince Bodhi Guptha and Prince Sumitha to perform rituals for the sacred tree.” Chief guardian Jayawardena and the heads of the nine villages responsible in the current generation for safeguarding the sacred Maha Bodhi tree were honoured when Indian High Commissioner Santosh Jha visited their doorstep to accord Indian recognition to the immense service their entire family lineage had faithfully performed from 236 BC by Asokan edict. High Commissioner Santhosh Jha conveyed his deep respect and admiration for the dedication with which the families had discharged their duties and bequeathed the family heirloom for the next generation to discharge. “They represented,” he said, “one of the most unique links of the shared Buddhist heritage between India and Sri Lanka.” As the Indian High Commission says, the Anuradhapura Atamasthanadhipathi, Ven. Pallegama Hemarathana Thera, who knew that Santhos Jha was from Bihar, told the descendant chieftains, ‘Anna neydheyo avillah’.