Elephant Orphanage

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THE ELEPHANT ORPHANAGE AT PINNAWELA

Although January 9 was technically a free day, everyone chose to go to this popular tourist attraction, and the bus and driver were provided for us to make the long trip there and back. Nice. The Elephant Orphanage is much more than just a tourist attraction; it is also a living example of the Buddhist reverence for life to provide life-long care for orphaned and disabled elephants. And the care they receive is fantastic. Fresh food, browsing areas, mahouts to care for them, and twice a day a trip to the river for a nice water bath and a roll in the mud. It is the daily walk and river bath that is mostly appealing to tourists. The procession that we saw had about 70 elephants: bulls, cows, and many babies. It was a sight I will always remember. One elephant was blind; he had his own personal mahout to lead him. Another elephant had stepped on a land mine- a legacy from the horrible civil war. Elephants are massive (literally elephantine!), and the direct blast only crippled this elephant's front leg. But it was so sad to watch this huge beast lurching along on three legs, all because people fight wars, often in what I consider very dirty ways. Land mines are sneaky. Totally unselective of what they kill or maim. Sometimes, it's a local child. Our trip avoided the areas known to be mined, which effectively prevented us from visiting the far north and eastern part of the country. I hope that the Sri Lankans will find lasting peace, and that I may be able to return one day and travel the entire country without fear.

The best part of the Elephant Orphanage experience happens when the elephants are in the river, because you are allowed to come up very close to them, even to touch them with the mahout's permission. (Easy to get, as they count on tips to supplement their wages.) We watched the show for almost an hour. It was so HOT that I wanted to tip the mahout enough rupees to be allowed to get in the river myself. Not a chance! Oh, well.

We were given tea with the Director of the Elephant Orphanage, and we learned a lot about the operation, and about the status of elephants in Sri Lanka from him. The elephants here are a distinct subspecies of the Indian Elephant. Very few of these Sri Lankan elephants have tusks; no one is sure why this is. We were shown the tranquilizer gun they have on hand in case an elephant gets way out of hand. Some do, and elephants kill people in Sri Lanka on a fairly regular basis. As the human population increases, man-elephant confrontations are becoming more frequent. One huge problem is elephants that raid crops- usually the small subsistence farms of the people. You can imagine what damage a herd of wild elephants could do to a small farm in a single night. It's illegal to kill an elephant, or to capture and domesticate one, so all the farmers can do is watch and drive them away. We saw several platforms high in trees when we toured elephant country. These are for night watchmen who guard the crops.

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