Sri Lanka returns orphaned baby elephants to the wild

Yahoo News 14 Jun 08;

Sri Lanka on Saturday released eight orphaned baby elephants into the jungle after rescuing them from near certain death, wildlife officials said.

The eight baby jumbos were freed from the Elephant Transit Home where they had been cared for inside the sprawling Udawalawe wildlife sanctuary.

The jumbos arrived by truck and were let loose in the jungle to integrate with an estimated 400 wild elephants at Udawalawe park.

Their progress will be monitored with the aid of radio collars.

"This is the eighth batch of baby elephants we are releasing since we started this programme in 1998," said Tharaka Prasad, the vet taking care of the jumbos at the transit home.

With the eight taken deep into the heart of the wildlife sanctuary and made to fend for themselves, a total of 64 babies have been freed to re-integrate with herds inside Udawalawe, 210 kilometres (131 miles) south of Colombo.

"We minimise their contact with people and bring them up in semi-wild conditions," Prasad said.

Sri Lanka's elephant population has dwindled from an estimated 12,000 at the start of the 20th century to around 4,000.

Official figures show about 150 are killed annually by villagers whose crops are destroyed by marauding elephants that claim the lives of 50 farmers each year.

Many of those elephants cared for by the wildlife officials have been injured after being struck by trains or shot by farmers. Others are rescued from pits into which they had fallen.