Amal Jayasinghe AFP Yahoo News 3 Sep 11;
Sri Lanka's elephant population remains healthy despite decades of fighting between government and rebel forces, the first survey since the end of the nation's bloody civil war showed Friday.
Wildlife officials said Sri Lanka has 7,379 elephants. Of that number, some 5,879 wild elephants are living near wildlife parks and sanctuaries while another 1,500 were estimated to be in other areas.
"We have an elephant population which is in good health and its population growth is also very good," Wildlife Conservation Department director H.D. Ratnayake told reporters in Colombo.
Before the count, the department said it believed the elephant population totalled just 5,350. The country boasted 12,000 elephants in 1900.
The survey counted 1,107 baby elephants, Ratnayake added.
It is the first count since Sri Lanka's military crushed Tamil Tiger separatist rebels in May 2009, making wildlife sanctuaries and jungles more accessible to officials.
About 3,500 people took part in the four-day survey, checking watering holes, ancient irrigation tanks and lakes commonly used by elephants, Ratnayake said, adding that they had set up 1,553 counting posts.
Migratory patterns suggest elephants may have moved out of the island's embattled northern region during the conflict and moved to neighbouring areas to avoid the fighting, officials said.
Wildlife authorities have treated elephants who stepped on anti-personnel mines or been shot during the decades-long separatist war.
But the count carried out last month was marked by controversy.
Hundreds of conservationists did not take part because of worries the survey would be used to seize elephants and send them to temples for use in religious ceremonies.
Elephants are treated as sacred animals in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka and domesticated pachyderms are paraded during temple ceremonies as well as at cultural events.
Wildlife Minister S. M. Chandrasena denied on Friday media reports quoting him as saying that the survey was to identify wild animals to be domesticated.
He told reporters that there would be no move to capture elephants.
"Not a single wild elephant will be captured. It is illegal to capture wild animals," the minister said.
However, he said baby elephants at two orphanages run by the government may be given to temples on a case-by-case basis.
Wildlife Conservation Department director Ratnayake said the survey numbers were especially encouraging as the count was carried out at a time when the conflict between humans and elephants has increased sharply.
Nearly 200 elephants are being killed each year by villagers as the animals stray into agricultural areas and some 50 people also are killed each year by marauding jumbos, officials say.
The authorities hope the survey results will be used to better target conservation efforts and minimise clashes with farmers.
Sri Lanka count finds more elephants than expected
Bharatha Mallawarachi Associated Press Yahoo News 2 Sep 11;
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — The first national survey of Sri Lanka's wild elephants found more than had been estimated — a sign the endangered species has a healthy, growing population on the Indian Ocean island.
The count conducted last month in forests and wildlife parks found 5,879 wild elephants, of which 122 are tuskers and 1,107 calves, Wildlife Minister S.M. Chandrasena said Friday.
Previous counts did not cover the entire island, but the end of a quarter-century civil war in 2009 opened former war zones to wildlife workers.
The information gathered from the survey will be used to devise plans to protect the endangered species, Wildlife Department Director General H.D. Ratnayake said.
The previous population estimate was 5,350 elephants, he said.
"These statistics show that Sri Lanka's elephants are in good health and that their population is growing," Ratnayake said.
Ratnayake said other details of the survey are still being processed and would be released later.
About 20 wildlife groups withdrew their support of the count, accusing the government of using it as a "smoke screen" for capturing the endangered animals and domesticating some of the young for use in Buddhist temples, tourism and labor.
Their accusation came after Chandrasena was quoted as saying 300 young elephants would be captured and handed over to Buddhist temples after the census. Elephants in elaborate costumes are often used in Buddhist ceremonies where they parade through the streets carrying the sacred relics of the Buddha.
Chandrasena has said he was misquoted and no wild elephants would be captured.
In the early 1900s, an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 elephants roamed wild on this tropical island off southern India. But poaching and the loss of habitat due to human activities such as deforestation for farming have taken their toll.
Wild elephants are increasingly entering villages in search of food, rampaging through houses, destroying crops and killing an estimated 50 people a year.
Around 250 elephants are killed annually, mostly by farmers defending their crops or villages.
The survey was conducted using the method known as "water hole count" and about 4,000 wildlife workers, farmers and villagers were deployed for three days at more than 1,500 locations across the country to survey the elephants as they come to water sources for a drink.
Previous elephant counts were confined to specific regions. One such census, in 1993, found 1,967 elephants, but it excluded the island's north and east, where a civil war was raging at the time. With the war's end in 2009, wildlife officials this time conducted the survey in the former war zones too.
