I am working in Keangnam Enterprises Ltd in Galgamuwa and I heard that wild life officers in the area captured a Tusker near to our office. My desires led me go there & see him. He is a Giant Tusker & this is the story of him. At this time he lived very happily with his friends roaming here & there in his home land close to Galgamuwa.
At present, man captured their home land gradually and the conflict between the man & the elephants began. Elephants come to the village in search of food & some people kill them. Some times elephants attack people. However most of the people love elephants and the villages call them as “Deyyo” (God). 
The Giant we are talking about was also coming to this village one day in search of food and two people were killed by him. Perhaps he was afraid of them.
After this incident wild life officers decided to transfer the Giant from his home land to another jangle & they started the operation of capturing him. Some how they could capture him on 22.12.2010. After capturing he spent two days in their custody. He tried his best to escape them in vain. During these days villages provided him food and looking after him.
But when he saw the large vehicle which comes to transport him, he fallen down to the earth and cried & cried & cried to show his aversion to go. I saw this by my own eyes and he could make tears in our eyes. 
However finally wild life officers loaded him to the vehicle without considering his resistance, (Because they thought of his safety). 
On 24.12.2010 (Shedding tears innocent Giant expressed his unwillingness of leaving his home land) he was carried away & the villages breathe freely thinking both the Giant & the Villages are safe.
Unfortunately their happiness lasted very little time. We heard that the Giant Tusker gone forever while transporting. The reasons for his untimely death were not revealed yet.
However this is an irreparable lost to Sri Lanka because he was the Tusker with the longest Tusks (6 Feet) in Sri Lanka. He is believed to be the Tusker with the longest Tusks in Asia.
The tragedy behind the story that the activities of the man cause not only loosing the home land but also the lives of the Wild Animals.
4 comments:
This is all very unfortunate,there never is a well planed,well coordinated,long term plan to save the jumbos and let the villages live with out fear of them.
do you have an email address to which I can write you? http://magazine.africageographic.com/weekly/issue-96/africas-big-tuskers/
I am writing a similar article about the last Asiatic big tuskers
many thanks,
Dian Balan
What no post mortem? You know he would have sustained a fatal internal injury in the struggle. No doubt you used other elephants to help load him on to the truck. Also, you never mentioned if he was sedated. But by the looks of the photo's he doesn't look like he was. A little sedation helps lessen things just a bit. Just a little less fight he may have lived. He would have had to go through the trauma twice though. You say he stayed for 2 days at the camp in their custody. So he had a second loading.No doubt not given enough water in custody. These people tend to believe all sorts of things like no food or water weakens them hence the fight may not be in him. But this is an ignorant type of belief but happens to bull tuskers all the time. From the camp, they would have drugged him and with dehydration and no fluids plus shock his heart would have stopped. So basically they overdosed him. People around elephants do tend to soften the blow that the true story would bring so they add a few words to make the emotions of the people flow. He was a dead elephant at the beginning. The tusks would be carved now sitting in a temple somewhere near where he lived. The corruption around elephants and temples is as bad as Kerala India. It's all about the money. What killed him? They did. They killed him. Very sad. He was a beautiful elephant in his prime. You ought to research and investigate this. You will find out the truth. Plus all sorts of other stories and get to the truth. You just have to do so understanding the corruption even amongst the monks. Many murdered elephants. This bull elephant was exceptionally beautiful. Shame he is gone. But glad they don't have him. They treat elephants too cruelly. Elephant Saman murdered brutally. Prince Miyan being abused and beaten. and more many more.
I wanted to edit my comment because after reading it again I realize my tone was a bit off. I was coming from the Sthn India point of view. The dynamics are different in the many different regions. I sound like a cynical 'know all' in my first (previous) comment.I apologise. The truth is this elephant did hit my heart. I have never forgotten his heart breaking story. I wanted to cry "Oh, please let him stay!" But I know the people would have been demanding his relocation. I appreciate your writing about him and how you felt for him. You cared about him and what happened to him is heart breaking. So often these wild ones are chased and harassed by mobs that gather and often someone is killed. Then the news media write as if the elerphants are particit`` to this conflict that humans call 'human elephant conflict.' People moving onto their habitat and building over and flooding it for dams. It's disgusting. It is a cop out and infers elephants seek out conflict. But they do not. It s always the humans who cause the so called conflict. I call it human abusing wild elephants. It is the humans who seek out the elephants and they attack and taunt and terrorize them. Now days, when I read that an elephant has attacked and killed a human, I will google it and every time the results show the deaths are a result of this mob violence and harassing the wild elephants. The news media never mentions the death was a result of a mob haraassing the wild elephants. They say the elephants attack but it is the humans who do the attacking. They should really call it 'Human wild elephant abuse'
or 'mob violence against the wild elephants."
The elephants are victims.
Thankyou for writing your heartfelt words and sharing them with us.
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