International Conference on Asian Elephants in Culture & Nature
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Item The Subspecies of Asian Elephants(Centre for Asian Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Sumangala Thero, PahiyangalaThe subspecies of Asian elephants can be classified under three main categories. Thereby the endemic species to Sri Lanka is named as Elephant maximus maxim. Also the subspecies of elephants that spread in the Indian sub-peninsula and indo-china territory are known as Elephas maximus indicus. Also the third group that spreads in a specific area of Sumatra Island is called Elephas maximus sumatranus. There is no considerable difference between the subspecies of Asian and African elephants. Adapting to various environmental factors from the edge of the west of South-East and Asian regions depends on its intensive characteristics arisen in the region. Two subspecies can be identified in Sri Lanka situated in the edge of the western region and Sumatra Island which is situated in the edge of the eastern region. Elephants that inhabit Sri Lanka and South India have the darkest and biggest auricles in their body. The spot spreads like depigmentation on their faces, auricles, trunk, feet and other parts in their body. Elephants who inhabit Sumatra and South Malesia have a small scale of body with light colour. Their auricles are smaller than other Asian elephants and depigmentation can be seen to an extent. The scale, colour, depigmentation and the scale of auricles of elephants in India, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Kambojiya between the edge of east and western regions have middle characteristics in above mentioned species. The Japanese elephant (Elephs maximus maximus rubridens) resembles elephants of Sri Lanka and it is also a subspecies of Asian elephants. These species merely date back 30000 years.Item The Conflict between Man and Elephant-A Case Study (Ulukkulama Village in Anuradhapura)(Centre for Asian Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Senarathna, T.M.C.D.The elephant, which is the largest territorial herbivore on the earth, make this island a paradise. The density ratio between man and elephant is 5000:1. The conflict between man and elephant is increasing daily particularly in rural areas. Elephants are forcefully entering villages and seeking food and water, because of the decrease of elephants’ habitat. They wander into villages and cultivated areas which were their previous habitats. The Ulukkulama village which is situated in Anuradhapura district has been selected as the study area in the research. The main objective of the research is to identify new mechanisms to avoid and decrease the conflict between man and elephant. The elephants, whose current habitats are located in Wilpattu National park are used to migrating into some villages which were their earlier habitats and they arrive from Willpattu National park in search of food from the village cultivations and destroy the entire cultivation in one night. Meanwhile several attacks were recorded in the area. Paddy cultivation is the most threatened crop in this conflict. It was recorded that the elephants prefer to have paddy. Field observations and interviews were used as data collecting methods. Locals in this area are implementing some tactics to get rid of the conflict. Noises, lights, flat forms on trees or hut, hooting, erecting electronic fences and keeping hakkapaus and gunpowder can be taken as the examples. Several recommendations have been made to mitigate the conflict between man and elephant. Erecting electric fences without blocking their traditional elephant corridors, dispelling elephants to new locations especially dangerous elephants (Horopathana wild elephant conservation and detainer centre-3500 Acr), paying attention to elephant corridors and opening it to elephants for their accustomed trails, educating people to plant lime and Hana as well as gathering beehives in locals’ houses are among them.Item Causes for the Rude Behavior of Elephants in and around the Yala National Park: Block-1(Centre for Asian Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Isthikar, M.A.M.Sri Lankan elephants (elphahasmaximusmaximus) need free natural habitats for their natural way of life. Innocent elephants have adopted rude behaviour as their self defence mechanism because of unethical human practices.The objective of this paper is to find the causes for the rude behavior of elephants in and around Yala National Park:Block-1 (YB-1).Datawere collected fromYB-1, office of the Park as well as from west and north western areas such as Kirinda, Situlpawwa, Galkaduwa, Palatupana, Mahesanpura and Weeravila through observation and interviews with officers and local people in July and December 2015. Yala National Park is facilitating more than 350 elephants including the block-1 which is open to visitors. However, the elephant population varies according to different seasons. In front of the elephants, more than 175 safari jeeps and private vehicles are permitted to make safari within the YB-1. As a result, the traffic congestion is noticeable in the block. Visitors are used to repeat their vehicle movements; as move, stop and restart them inside the park, and that makes the elephants nervous, and interrupts their free roaming and feeding. Visitors tend to shout, show objects such as bottles and sometimes throw those objects towards them, wave hands, hoot vehicle horns, flash their cameras towards elephants and some also try to feed unnecessarily. The villagers intrude upon the park for numerous purposes and hurt elephants in different ways. Due to above such human activities, lack of seasonal carrying capacity in the park, and with the attraction of tasty ready-made food around the park, elephants occupy, feed and trample outside the park during the drought which is prevalent from May to August. People light crackers, fires, shout, make noises with tins and coconut shells and use of lethal devices, and shoot elephants as well as chase them away. Some elephants remain with injuries. With such repeated incidents, some elephants become rude and try to attach humans.Item Dutch Colonial Memories on Sri Lankan Elephants(Centre for Asian Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Wijesuriya, B.During the period in which the Dutch East India Company (DEIC) ruled over the coastal region of Sri Lanka, it dispatched the officials to the Island to serve in the Dutch territory. Among the officials so dispatched, the Governor was the highest authority for the administration of territory. The DEIC appointed more than 25 Governors to the Dutch Territory of Sri Lanka. The Governor needed to be aware of the important matters related to the political, judicial, defense, religious, educational, commercial or other realms of the territory. The outgoing Governors used to write memoirs to their successors explaining the state of the above-mentioned realms during their term of office. These memoirs are one of the noteworthy accounts in the archival records of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries which have been translated into English for non-Dutch speaking researchers who are interested in the DEIC’s administration, in particular,Sri Lanka. What do the so-called Memoirs of the Dutch Governors of Sri Lanka mention of Sri Lankan elephants? To what extent the memoirs of the Dutch Governors of Sri Lanka can be used to tap the DEIC dealings with the elephants of Sri Lanka? What assessment could be made on the DEIC trade in Sri Lankan elephants based on those mentions? The prime interest of the DEIC in Sri Lanka rested mainly on its trade commodities including elephants which then had a significant demand in the foreign markets. It is said that the elephants were abundantly found in the surrounding lands of the Valaveriver in the Giruvāpattu of the Mataradisāvony, the wooded hinterland in Negombo and Ja-ela in the Colombodisāvony, Vanni territories in the northern region and the area surrounding Trincomalee and Batticaloa in the East of Sri Lanka.Item Elephants in South-East Asian Rock Art, an Overview(Centre for Asian Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Tan, N.H.This paper presents a survey of elephant depictions in Southeast Asian rock art, which, as a class of archaeological material remains relatively unstudied in the region. Elephants have been depicted in rock art in many parts of Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. These depictions are varied, in size, form and possibly age. Both wild and domesticated elephants are portrayed. Rock art has a deep antiquity in Southeast Asia with the oldest known paintings approximately 40,000 years old. The date of the elephant depictions in rock art is less certain. Collectively Southeast Asian elephant rock art pose larger questions about the significance of elephants in Southeast Asia and the date of domestication of elephants in the region.