International Conference on Asian Elephants in Culture & Nature
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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 Elephants their Habitats: Uses and Maintenance in Medieval India(Centre for Asian Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Khan, E.The growth of objective pictures of birds and animals, plants and flowers, etc., during the sixteenth-seventeenth century reflects the passion of the Mughal emperors for nature and wild life. Akbar had as many as 101 elephants for his personal use, each given a name, an exalted position, trained staff for proper upkeep, special diet, shikar, sport including the elephant fight and for the battle field. There are numerous pictures of elephants in several historical, biographical, religious, and literary manuscripts illustrated for Akbar and other Mughal emperors in his memoirs and other official historical accounts like Baburnama, Tuzuk-iJahangiri, Iqbalnama-iJahangiri, Majalis-iJahngiri, Ain-i Akbari, Akbarnama, Padshahnama, Shajahanama, Maasir-iAlamgiri, Ruqqat-iAlamgiri, etc. In 1616, Muqarrab Khan presented Jahangir with a small elephant brought from Abyssinia. Jahangir took notice of its peculiarities. He writes: “In comparison with the elephants of Hindustan, it presents some peculiarities. Its ears are larger than the ears of the elephants of this place, and its trunk and tail are longer.” Here, he also takes notice of a young elephant (African) presented to his father Akbar by Itimad Khan of Gujarat in the year 1567. Both the Persian and the Mughal court provided a logical basis to the artist’s acquaintance with animal character and behaviour. Among such works at the Mughal atelier, the most favourite texts were the Anwar-iSuhaili, the Iyar-i Danish and the Ajaib-al Makhluqat in which the animals are the main characters and an integral part of most of the themes. Numerous copies of these manuscripts repeatedly illustrated at the Mughal atelier during sixteenth century bear testimony to the depiction of wild-life. The theme of animal fight mainly illustrates combats between cocks, goats, rams, deer, buffaloes, camels and elephants. These, as a matter of rule, show careful studies of animals engaged in violent action. An attempt has been made in the research paper to use the text of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in perspective of ecology or the environment, to find out what was the condition of elephants, their habitats, distributions, uses and maintenance during the medieval period.