Fun facts about Sri Lankan Elephants

 Sri Lankan Elephants

Elephants are very interesting animals. They are tamed to help in various activities. There are people who own elephants as pets. The difference is that they are a good source of income to the people who own them.  It is equivalent to owning a heavy duty equipment that can be rented out to work sites.
Elephants can lift, pull and push heavy objects. In order to lift or pull, the object is tied with  a chain and at the end of the chain is a thick rope made out of palm fiber. The elephant bites the rope in order to pull or move the item. This is a very common practice in these parts of the world.

Cooling the Elephants

They are also hired to help in logging, moving heavy objects and certain festivals like  Esala Perahara - where they are  dressed in traditional elephant clothing to participate in a parade. Usually they work in the morning. Elephants cannot tolerate the afternoon sun. An elephant is taken to the river in the afternoon to be washed and cool down. 
They are endangered due to various reasons like the destruction of habitat, poaching and human conflicts. Sri Lankan elephants are supposed to be well protected by law. 
These mammals are very intelligent and they have  a very good memory. Once domesticated they become part of the family. Children would play with them. If you happen to play hide and seek, you could hide under or behind their legs. The elephant will put both legs together to hide you. If you want climb on them they wound bend their knee to climb like a ladder. Or simply they will kneel down for you to climb up. The keeper would speak to the elephant and they would understand and follow orders. 

Once tamed elephants are very obedient. Occasionally they would disobey and the caretaker or the keeper would use the stick to make them understand that they are doing something wrong. They would get in line immediately. At times they would get frustrated be aggressive and run out of control. This can happen because they are either too hot or something is bothering them. It could be that they are not feeling well or an insect bite on a sensitive part of the body.  

Based on what they did it will be decided that the boundary was crossed and the caretaker, owner decides they will chain the legs in a manner to limit the movements of the legs. It does not harm the elephants except that he/she realizes the his mobility is controlled. It’s a temporary measure until they get their act together. This is done mainly as a precaution not to endanger public. 

One of the of the main tourist attraction is the Elephant Orphanage Zoo in Pinnawala. It is a sanctuary for adult and baby elephants. The whole idea here was to treat the wounded and to breed elephants and because of the popularity it has become a more of a business. If you happened to visit here you will get to feed and cuddle these elephants.

Feeding Elephants

You are able to give to put your hand in their mouth with the food or they will take it with the trunk. The elephant knows  not hurt you. You can pet them too.

 

For the safety of the visitors the elephants are supervised. This is where the sanctuary becomes a business. These elephants are working whether they like it or not. The captivity part could be debated. They do follow protocol with the diet, rest and well being of the elephants. 
My friend Jiffry and I was road biking the stretch from Dambulla to Trincomalee a distance of 106km out of 834km bike tour. This part of the road travels through a forest where there are wild elephants. 

Map where wild elephants can be found 

It was getting dark and we knew we had to be careful. We stopped at a little village and spoke to the locals about the dangers. We heard many stories about vehicles having to stop for elephants hours at a time for them to cross the road and so on. But they could not understand someone doing that on a bike. They were very helpful as to what we should do in case of an encounter. 
So my friend and I devised  a plan. We were going to ride parallel, one keeps an eye on the right and the other to the left. In turn we would look back at frequent intervals. An elephant can chase a bike easy. Should there be an elephant we were suppose to hide in a burrow or behind trees and never to run. We were scared and we were lucky not to come across one.
We saw houses along the way part of the roof broken, fences bend and trees uprooted. They were done by the elephants. It was a once in a life time experience! 

CDC Sri-Lanka Travel view- Covid-19