By Prof. Samitha Hettige
Although elephants have always been domesticated for work and war,th August was declared as ‘World Elephant Day’. The aim was to raise awareness of the threats faced by elephants and to encourage conservation efforts. Historical records show that elephants were a major export of Sri Lanka until Dutch rule. Instead, the British enjoyed killing and capturing (ref. Panamure), going so far as to issue capture permits as late as the 1930s. If elephants were the natural machine for hard labour and war before industrialisation, shouldn’t the machines invented by humans have replaced elephants by now?
Threats
According to the WWF, the population of Asian elephants at the end of the 19th century was 100,000.th Since the 18th century, their numbers have dropped to 50,000 a century later, mainly due to habitat loss and human-elephant conflict. For this reason, the Asian elephant is classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Countries experiencing human-elephant conflict can learn from success stories such as the southern Chinese province of Yunnan, which has around 300 wild elephants (see Yunnan statistics). Although China has been exposed to Buddhist philosophy since the time of Buddha, there is not much evidence of the Chinese training elephants for work and cultural affairs. It is interesting to study how a country of more than 1.4 billion people uses modern technology and machinery to manage tremendous development, cultural activities, its rich biodiversity, and especially to live in harmony with wild elephants.
Wild elephants in China
After about four decades of protection, the population of wild elephants in China has grown from 150 to 300. Continuous habitat expansion through well-managed human settlements and agriculture is considered a key factor. This was made possible by the intelligent early warning system developed to monitor elephant movements. Around 100 rangers equipped with smartphones were involved in operating the early warning system, but after implementing the intelligent system with automatic infrared cameras, drones with thermal imaging technology, intelligent broadcast systems and a cloud service system, the Chinese were able to improve the ability to detect elephants and send alerts faster (approximately within 12 seconds of sighting). Since June 2020, around 100,000 alerts have been sent from the application with an accuracy of 96% (see statistics from Yunnan).
Prestige conflict prevention
When Belgium ruled the Congo, African elephants were trained as pack animals. Such practices are no longer common today and elephants serve mainly as a tourist attraction. In Sri Lanka, elephant ownership is still considered prestigious. In the past, only the rich landowners owned elephants, apart from important Buddhist and Hindu temples. Given the socio-economic demands of the time, this would have been justified. However, the behavior of Sri Lankans has taken new turns. The rich, who keep their dogs in air-conditioned kennels, try to keep elephants in freezer containers if they allow it, after seeing “Muthu Raja” fly home. The contribution of domesticated and wild elephants is equally important to revive the economy and come out of the crisis (development of the tourism sector). Therefore, calls for permits to capture wild elephants and support captive breeding in private ownership are likely to increase. “Muthu Raja” in Thailand, where tourism is a key factor in economic stability, may one day write its own story. Sri Lankans may take notice as they know the stories of “Panamure” and “Nalagiri”. They should not be like the blind men who sensed the elephant, because economic restructuring for long-term stability is possible with opportunities like the Belt & Road Initiative. (The views expressed are personal.)
