An elephant has gone on rampage in Kekirawa (near Dambulla), damaging like 50 vehicles and temporarily closing the road. While he has not released a statement, humans have been steadily encroaching on elephant land for years. It could also be personal.
According to the Sunday Times, this is the tusker in question
While elephants ‘rampage’ through villages with some frequency, it’s rare for them to trash vehicles. 50 vehicles, I must say, is pretty impressive, as far as rampages go.
Kekirawa is a small town between Dambulla and Anuradhapura. You can get a decent rice and curry and my grandfather used to work there. I can’t figure out if this incident shut down the A9, the Kandy-Jaffna Road, they said it happened across an 8km stretch from Kylapathana to Tibbatuwawa.
Various news reports pegged the vehicle count at around 10, with the Sunday Observer declaring mission accomplished at 11. The latest report from the Daily Mirror, however, is 50. They say the elephant was chased off to the jungle, but more likely than not, he got dark and left.
At some point, if elephants ever organize and decide to Occupy Anuradhapura (or Hambantota for that matter) there isn’t that much we can do about it. I’ve talked about elephant rights before, and it’s not a joke. We need to be thoughtful and give them space, A) because it’s their land too and B) having them around is good for us and future generations. Sri Lanka has pretty generous national parks, but it’s not like elephants stay there. As this documentary shows, human elephant conflict is a daily reality for many farmers.
Common Ground Trailer from Greener Media on Vimeo.
According to the latest elephant census, we have about 6,000 elephants, down from about 10-15,000 in the 1900s. I have been chased by two and I can guarantee you it’s terrifying, I have a healthy fear of elephants now and no longer equate them with circus animals or Babar.
It must have been quite scary in Kekirawa, but we also need to feel kinda bad for the elephant. That’s how I generally feel about elephants. Sympathetic and afraid.
Never trusted those guys, we went to see them in Mineriya and a protective bull almost chased us with flared ears and a raised trunk. I also saw kinder ones on the way to Kandy.
But luckily for me I rode (a short ride) on an elephant before that incident. You will be surprised where, here in Bay area Vallejo Six Flags :)
It could be one of those horny elephants? They apparently get quite crazy when they are in rut.
A few years back, I was on a night safari in a jeep in a dried out tank bed close to Minneriya. Probably illegal. There was a herd of about 200 and a few were acting aggressive, closing in on us from two sides. The jeep driver remained nonchalant, while the rest of us were frozen in fear. What I noticed was how the mothers hurriedly pushed the baby elephants in to the dense shrubs on the periphery. Herds mostly consist of females and the younger males I think, probably not as dangerous as the lone males.
With the Indian elephant it is almost the lone elephant that is the danger, the opposite is the case with the African elephant.
However if a cow elephant feels that a calf is in danger (eg it cross the road before ones vehicle and the vehicle is in between the mother and calf,) the cow could charge. Constant harassment by tourists, like in Uda Walawe, has not helped either.
I saw some television footage of the elephant, people were running behind the elephant, making a lot of noise and (it seemed to me) annoying the creature. Looked very very stupid.
Appara they’ve captured the elephant. It’s partially blind (wha?) and is being treated for gunshot wounds