Please
don't feed the elephants - Written by Srilal Miththapala
January 2013. There is a serious situation developing in Sri Lanka's Yala
National Park, due to a particular adult male elephant becoming too acclimatized
to tourist jeeps and interacting with the visitors closely.
Mature tusker
This elephant is a mature tusker, known as ‘Gemunu', that has become a very popular & iconic elephant in Yala for over a decade now. However, for the past year, he has begun to have close contact with jeeps, most probably because he is being fed by the tourists or even the jeep drivers in an effort to keep their clients happy. Elephants are very intelligent animals and can learn certain behaviours quickly.
Do's
and don'ts for visitors to Yala National Park, which could in some way help
mitigate this problem.
Don't
take food items into the park. If you have to, please ensure they are in air
tight containers so that odours and smells are minimized.
If
you come across Gemunu (very easily distinguished by his big tusks), do not
stop, and do try to move away. However, this may not be possible as he stands
in the middle of the road and blocks the path.
In
all instances, be guided by the Wildlife Department tracker. But in some
instances, due to the demand, trackers are not provided for every jeep. In such
cases, please do not allow the jeep driver to show-off by stopping for
Gemunu.
If
Gemunu is too close, don't try to drive away, as this may alarm him. Stay quiet
and as calm as possible. He is usually very docile and has not harmed anyone.
Do
not take any chances, however exciting and exhilarating the experience of
having a full grown elephant calmly check you out at such close quarters. Remember
he is a WILD ELEPHANT and could be potentially very very dangerous.
Very
often, he gets hemmed-in the middle of a convoy of vehicles. The vehicles in
front should move away, without waiting for photo opportunities, allowing other
vehicles to also move.
So
far he has been sighted on the main road, but he could possibly come across to
the places where people alight from the jeeps to have a snack, such
Patanangala. So be careful at any location where you leave your jeep, and if he
is sighted immediately get back into your jeeps.
Potentially
dangerous
The situation has reached a very critical point, where Gemunu now is bold enough to walk right up to a jeep and put his trunk completely in to the jeep, searching for food items. In fact, last week when I was in Yala, I saw him putting his entire head into a jeep; thankfully there were only two guests in the jeep and they managed to squeeze to the other side while he rummaged around the jeep, took out a knapsack and destroyed it. These guests were extremely traumatized by this experience.
The situation has reached a very critical point, where Gemunu now is bold enough to walk right up to a jeep and put his trunk completely in to the jeep, searching for food items. In fact, last week when I was in Yala, I saw him putting his entire head into a jeep; thankfully there were only two guests in the jeep and they managed to squeeze to the other side while he rummaged around the jeep, took out a knapsack and destroyed it. These guests were extremely traumatized by this experience.
While
this certainly provides a once- in- a life-time exciting experience, it could
very easily turn into a serious incident.
The
only way to stop this is by gradually ‘teaching' Gemunu that coming and
searching the jeeps for food will not yield any success. There is no other way
he can be constrained.
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