In one of my first articles "the elephant conflict with humans in Sri Lanka" I already addressed an urbanization issue on the exotic island. The diminishing natural habitat of wild elephants causes a conflict.
Urbanization problem documented: a wild elephant goes for a stroll along the street.
Photo taken out of a Tuk-Tuk.
The following lines are from that post:
While each year the deaths of 50 people are caused by elephants in Sri Lanka,
100 – 150 elephants are being killed. In a lot of the cases of human deaths the elephants just protected themselves from being killed.
If it was not for the elephant orphanage in Pinnawala the killing of "not working" or "aggressive wild" elephants each year would even be higher.
Although the fatality figures are already sticking out massively in Sri Lanka as I pointed out in my article.
Deathly accidents caused by elephants per capita are 15 to 20 times higher in Sri Lanka than in India.
| India | Sri Lanka | |
|---|---|---|
Population | 1.200.000.000 | 20.000.000 |
Fatalities caused by elephants | 150 - 200 | 50 |
Fatalities per capita | 0,0000001667 - 0,0000001250 | 0,0000025000 |
The orphanage in Pinnawala takes on elephants and contributes by taking on "problem cases", "killer elephants",
"homeless" and young elephants that lost their parents.
The orphanage offers:
- housing
- food
- nursery
I did not like all of what I saw there, such as the treatment of the elephants by the mahouts and it was very touristy, but with respect to the above listed bullet points, the overall purpose is a good one.
Here are some impressions of our visit of the orphanage:
Images source: All own photographs
elephants are social family animals and need each other - so for those young elephants that have lost their parents and the rest of the heard, its a confusing and grieving time for them. To be honest if I saw someone treating them badly, they would soon know about it! love and kindness and gentle learning is what they need and peace .
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great post. thank you for sharing your pics
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These amazing huge animals just need to be left alone and protected!
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@simonjay, you say it! It sounds so simple but in reality villages grow, rice fields and roads are placed in their natural habitat etc. Thanks for your response!
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These photos look like something from National Geographic. #SaveTheElephants
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