Wild elephant charging. Photo by Tom Olliver
Sri Lanka has an estimated 5,879 wild elephants (Guardian). This is less than I thought, but apparently more than we had. This is the result of the first major elephant census, involving 4,000 officials hanging around water holes. Interesting stuff, and the first to cover the whole island. Perhaps they can do people soon.
The wildlife minister SM Chandrasena said last month’s survey revealed that Sri Lanka had 5,879 wild elephants. The figure includes 122 tuskers – male elephants with tusks – and 1,107 calves. (Guardian)
They estimate that we had 10-15,000 elephants in the 1900s and a 1993 census (excluding the North and East due to war) counted around 2,000. So are there like 4,000 elephants in the north and east? Hmmm.
One controversy was that they were going to use this census to capture/enslave wild elephants for temples and peraheras (processions). Malaka Rodrigo has been documenting these issues on his blog. The officials are now saying that no elephants will be forcibly conscripted.
The broader danger, of course, is development squishing elephants out of their natural habitat, and bringing more human-elephant conflict. Development needs to happen, but elephants and wildlife are A) an asset and B) awesome. Their needs should be taken into consideration. Used properly, a census is one tool towards better understanding and living with elephants. This Sri Lankan ITU contest idea to hook them up via smartphones is another.
They say the percentage of tuskers is very much lower than what it should be, as a direct result of poaching.
There was talk of joining all the wildlife parks with jungle corridors. That would have been nice for the elephants. Only, farmers have settled close to old elephant corridors and elephants have aquired a taste for human food, and have begun to attack villages purposely to steal crops.
Actually in SL the proportion of tuskers has always been low. Some say that this is because the Brits targeted those with tusks, selecting against that trait. There are other theories though, I believe it was Paranivitane who suggested that the subspecies in SL has a low incidence of tusks naturally (they are also generally bigger than the Indian subspecies) and that the ancestry of the tuskers you see now are actually descendants of those imported from India a couple of thousand years ago. Haven’t read the publications in awhile so not sure about the standing of that theory now.
One of the main issues is that elephants love secondary forest, which means chena cultivation so that brings them close to people. And like you mentioned the uncontrolled development is an issue as well. So much for corridors.
Btw these numbers are probably bullshit. The methodology used was inherently flawed as waterhole counts are not a good way to count. There’s also no margin of error here, any statistical technique has to have a margin of error. No technique ever gives a solid number like this. Of course as a result we have the highest densiity in South Asia, to add to the tallest communications tower and the largest cricket ground and the longest suspension bridge and all the other wonderful things this government has achieved:) Suba Anagathayak.