News
Pidurangala’s pachyderm problem needs “sustainable solution”
View(s):By Wasantha Ramanayake
The death of a foreign tourist due to a wild elephant attack at Pidurangala in Sigiriya last week points to the lack of personnel and resources within the Wildlife Department as well as a lack of tourist awareness of possible wild elephant encounters after dark in the area, experts said.
In the vicinity of Pidurangala, frequented daily by more than 5,000 tourists as well as other commuters, the Wildlife Department does not have the human resources to take effective measures against the human-elephant conflict, said Sigiriya Tourist Police OIC Inspector Dissanayake, who investigated the death of Hungarian tourist Professor Joe Anton, who had visited the Pidurangala rock with his wife last week.
Tourism stakeholders should educate tourists about danger of wild elephants. Pix by Kanchana Kumara Ariyadasa
“Tourists share the responsibility of their actions equally for visiting the area after dark, against advice not to do so,” the OIC emphasised.
Inspector Dissanayake said that while hotel and tourist accommodation owners warn tourists against walking in the area after darkness, this is not communicated rigorously enough.
While the Sigiriya tourist site is well-lit and secure from elephants, Pidurangala is part of a wildlife sanctuary and not cleared of wild elephants.
According to the UK-based Guardian, the human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka is among the most severe in the world, causing approximately 400-470 elephant deaths and 100-180 human fatalities annually.
The recent incident occurred outside the Central Cultural Fund’s (CCF) Sigiriya Heritage site, which manages the Sigiriya UNESCO World Heritage Site, its manager H A C Gayan told the Sunday Times.
“Our staff work from 3 am in the morning to ensure a safe environment for visitors,” the CCF manager said, adding that their officials provide free transport for anyone out of the site under the purview of the CCF using their vehicles every day as the country’s first sustainable tourism destination as certified by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC).
Joe Anton, who visited Pidurangala with wife
Mr Gayan said they deploy two ambulances to transport emergency cases to nearby hospitals. One ambulance is placed close to the Lion’s Paw, and the other one is placed at the entrance to the site. These two vehicles stay until the closure of the site.
“Visitors should be aware of the threat posed by wild elephants. The wild elephants around Sigiriya are not used to human presence, as wild elephants found close to the main road near Habarana or the Pinnawala elephant orphanage are,” he said.
He called on respective stakeholders, such as the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, hotels and guides, to educate the tourists about the danger of wild elephants.
“Sigiriya, being the country’s largest tourist attraction and a sustainable tourist destination, needs the particular attention of the SLTDA if a sustainable solution is to be achieved,” said Janaka Dunusinghe, former president of the Sri Lanka Institute of National Tourist Guide Lecturers’ Institute.
“We have talked about this with the tourism minister, deputy minister, SLTDA chairperson and all other relevant people, but are yet to see any concrete action,” he added.
SLTDA and CCF, the main stakeholders of the Sigiriya sustainable tourist destination, had been given the necessary guidelines to reduce the human-elephant conflict, said Chinthana Duminduhewa, a sustainable tourism expert and a key consultant to Sri Lanka’s first destination certification in Sigiriya.
The authorities have turned a blind eye to the human-elephant conflict in the Sigiriya area. “Two years before, there was a similar attack by a wild elephant that seriously wounded a tourist,” said a resident of the area.
A three-wheeler driver in the area also attested that a few weeks before, a farmer was attacked by a wild elephant, and a three-wheeler was also damaged.
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