Investing in Communities to Conserve Elephants

Dahaiyagala and deforestation in Sri Lanka

In our previous report we described illegal encroachment and attempted land grabs threatening critical wildlife corridors. The government has also been clearing out forests to various enterprises, domestic and foreign, under the pretense of 'development.' Not wanting to be left behind, local residents also want their share - all of this spells trouble.

The Dahaiyagala corridor is under such threat. It is narrow stretch of habitat that provides access to the larger forest north of Udawalawe National park. This corridor is important for elephants to crossover to gain access to much needed minerals and other food sources. Our field officer, Sameera Weeratunga, was a key figure in bringing awareness to the issue and rallying people together. He managed to get the local temples, certain Wildlife and Forest department authorities, and other environmental conservationists to make an appeal to the President, highlighting the ongoing human- elephant conflict that would only be worsened by these developments. After much persistence, we are heartened that the government has now decided to hold off distributing the land in Dahaiyagala, which we hope will maintain the integrity of the sanctuary.

'ECOCIDE' - A New Generation Awakens

With the government showing less interest in protecting the environment, a group of environment conservations organizations banded together to create a coalition to voice out against the ecocide that is happening across Sri Lanka. The coalition’s first course of action was to organize a protest, in the busy streets of the capital city, Colombo. It's the first time since the end of Sri Lanka's Civil War that there has been such attention on the environment, and the first time ever there has been such a massive mobilization to protect it.

With over a thousand participants, the protest was powered by a new generation of young conservationists and gained the traction it needed to create awareness. There were extensive media coverage and social media coverage that popularized #stopecocide in Sri Lanka.

But we know protests are not enough - when the cameras are off, and everyone goes home, there is work still to be done. We are there to do it.

Saving Rambo

Rambo was for many years a major attraction at Udawalawe National Park. Having pioneered the art of "begging" at the fence, he relished the fruit he received from local and international tourists alike. Our Ethical Elephant Experiences campaign last year highlighted the hazard such feeding creates for people and elephants alike, and unfortunately, we were right. However, the recent travel restrictions, curfews and lockdowns have stopped tourists from visiting the park and the park was mostly shutdown to prevent the COVID 19 spread. Perhaps for this reason, among others, last year Rambo started boldly breaking through the electric fence and raiding nearby plantations and farms. The Department of Wildlife conservation (DWC) therefore initiated plans to capture the 50-year old Rambo and relocate him to Horowupathana Elephant Detention Center.

The Udawalawe Elephant Research Project has been monitoring Rambo for a long time, and our field manager Sameera, believed that relocating Rambo was unjust. He was at risk of being injured or killed if confined. After coordinating meetings among many key people, the DWCsuspended plans for his relocation. It remains a delicate situation and we hope that neither human or elephant is harmed. Sameera describes these events in his own words, on our blog.

Incense sticks

We enlisted 20 farmers who were willing to participate in trials to see if the incense sticks provided by HDDeS Pvt. Ltd were actually keeping elephants from raiding their crops. Though our trials last year were held up by the pandemic, by April we did manage to complete them and are now preparing a report with our findings of whether this is a viable mitigation method for human-elephant conflict. In the the meantime, wildlife authorities have taken already on board the idea with some enthusiasm - we hope their optimism is well-placed.

Links:

• Read Our Latest Blog
• Our Work In The News

Emergency at Dahaiyagala Elephant Corridor!

Recently, Sri Lankan leadership has been endorsing illegal encroachment and land grabbing, set to destroy wild habitats at an alarming rate. This deforestation harms the wildlife, disrupts the ecosystem and thus leads to more human-elephant conflicts and other crises. Recognizing this, farmers in southern Sri Lanka last month actually went on a hunger strike asking for relief. They did not blame the elephants, instead asking the government to make good on the promised elephant reserve, the lands for which had also been encroached by development interests.

The Dahaiyagala corridor is narrow stretch of forest that provides access to the larger forest north of our long-term research site, Udawalawe National Park.  This corridor is important for elephants to crossover to gain access to much needed minerals and other food sources. Without it, elephants will be unable to move between protected areas, risking starvation. However, with the government as willing accomplices, local area council members aided by thugs have torched certain areas, trying to illegally seize protected land.

Trunks & Leaves, along with most of the environment conservation organizations, are in the midst of fighting with pen and paper to stop these illegal land grabbing and to enforce stricter laws in protecting these forests. Here's what we're doing:

• Raising awareness through the press and media. Find more details on our blog and see how you can help.
• Drawing upon all of our research and data with which to arm the conservationists, wildlife managers, community leaders, and other allies in fighting back.
• Starting a legal defense fund and hopefully by the next report we can share some good news. Please support our efforts by donating on GlobalGiving, if you can.

Supplementary crop project 

We need to develop agricultural systems that can help farmers live with elephants. As we mentioned in our last report, we are currently working with partners to establish sites for this project. The country situation, with curfews and restricted movement between districts, has hampered progress. Nevertheless, we have identified several prospective areas and communities. Meanwhile, we are excited to have initiated a new working group rallying together partners to secure funding to trial this project on a larger scale in Sri Lanka as well as 3 other countries - India, Thailand and Cambodia (T&L | Socio-ecology Working Group - Trunks & Leaves). This will allow us to test our approach even more broadly and draw insights about what works and what doesn't in these very different contexts.

Updates on the Incense Experiment

It’s a new year and a fresh start for this project, which was stalled last year due to the pandemic.  We have finally been able to conduct tests of the incense sticks said to be capable of repelling elephants from crops, developed by our partner, HDDES.

Originally we enlisted 20 farmers willing to participate in our experiment. Half were to test the efficacy of the incense sticks whereas the others were to be monitored without the incense stick. Due to the economic situation stemming from the pandemic, some of the farmers were occupied with other work and decided not to harvest this time around. Hence instead of the initially planned 20, we had 16 farmers who were willing to participate in our testing. Over a period of two weeks, we can gauge if the sticks have reduced crop raids or if they are ineffective. Our field team took a week to get the farmers onboard and set the cameras up in their respective fields. As of today, the testing is in its final phase and by the 4^th of March we would be compiling all our data, along with testimonials from farmers and presenting a report for the rest to see. We're eager to see the results!

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Find photos, videos and more stories under #CoexistenceProject, #LivingWithElephants and #ElephantOptimism

Links:

• New Article Regarding The Encroached Corridor
• News Article on Farmer Protests