Sustainable BioDiversity
Economic Development Conference
The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce
Cinnamon Lakeside, Colombo
12th &13th July 2011
The Future of Tuskers in Sri Lanka
Srilal Miththapala
BSc; C Eng; FIEE; MIMgt; MIH
Project Director,
Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Solutions ( Pvt) Ltd
The Future of the Tuskers in Sri Lanka
Srilal Miththapala
1.0 Introduction
The Asian elephant is widely spread in South East Asia, from India in the West to Borneo in the East, and since 1986. It has been listed as an endangered species by the IUCN, with the population declining by at least half over the last 75-100 years. Currently, the population is estimated to be between 41,000 to 52,000 animals (Sukumar,V. 2003). Asian elephants are flagship and super-keystone species i.e they are charismatic representatives of the bio diversity who can completely shape and change the eco system they inhabit. Since they are very large animals, needing lot of space to survive, their conversation will help to maintain biological diversity over extensive areas, helping many other species also to survive.
In Sri Lanka, the elephant has had a very close association with the people, culture and religion of the country. It is estimated that the beginning of the 19th century, there were some 10,000 wild elephants in Sri Lanka (Mackay, G. M. 1973), but in subsequent years, indiscriminate capture and hunting led to the destruction of thousands of elephants. The remaining populations are mostly smaller, isolated and fragmented, because their ancient migratory routes and habitats have been disrupted by expanding human encroachment. This fragmentation of habitat has increasingly brought wild elephants in conflict with man. Today, the human elephant conflict (HEC) has transcended from a basic wildlife management problem to a major environmental and rural socio economic crisis in Sri Lanka.
The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWLC) has recorded that 1369 elephants have been killed in the last 10 years, while during the same period more than 500 humans have also lost their lives. The DWLC estimates that Sri Lanka has around 4,000 to 5,000 elephants in the wild, and that on the average HEC results in 150 elephant deaths per year, and 50-70 human lives per year. ( DWLC Web Site)
Due to the ranging behavior of elephants, it is most often solitary bull elephants that face most of the conflict in their search for food, water and receptive females for mating. Of the 1369 elephants killed over the past 10 years, the DWLC estimates that 68% were healthy adult bulls. Hence this is of great concern for sustaining a viable wild elephant population. Given the fact that only male Asian elephants have tusks, and the fact that the Sri Lankan species has one of the lowest incidences of tuskers of around 7.3% of the male population (Hendawitharana W, Santiapillai C, et.al 1994), there are definitely enough reasons and more, to be concerned about the future of the tuskers among the Sri Lankan wild elephant population.
2.0 Elephant Tusks
2.1 A Blessing and Curse
All species of elephants have tusks. In the case of the African species, both male and female have tusks, while in the Asian species only males have tusks. Among Sri Lankan elephants, the incidence of tusks in males is one of the lowest of the Asian sub species, with only around 7% males having tusks.
The elephant has been endowed with tusks which are both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing because tusks give an elephant a certain majesty and stature that makes them rise above other animals. It is a curse because man’s greed for the ivory in the tusks has led to the senseless slaughter of hundreds of thousands of these animals. The poor prevelance of tusks in the Sri Lankan species therefore, is an added blessing in disguise and elephant deaths, due to poaching are thankfully far and few between.
2.2 Facts about Tusks
The tusks are really the two front upper incisor teeth of the elephants. The tusks being a biological product, is composed of ivory which in turn is mainly made up from calcium and phosphate and other minerals. (Shoshani , J. 1992) Only about 2/3rds of the tusk is exposed, while the balance 1/3 lies embedded in the skull. The embedded part has a pulp cavity, which has sensitive nerve endings. Elephants use their tusks for range of activities, such as foraging, digging and stripping bark. They can also can be used as formidable weapons when needed. Tame elephants use their tusks to deftly aid work related to logging activities.
Elephants prefer to use one tusk more than the other and therefore, they are usually right or left tusked (right or left handed like humans). African elephants have larger tusks than Asian Elephants which can reach up to 3M(10ft) and weigh over 90kgs (200 pounds) (Shoshani , J. 1992). An Asian male’s tusk can sometimes match an African elephant tusks in length, but are slimmer and lighter, with the heaviest recorded being about 40 kgs (88 pounds). (The in-famous Galgamuwa tusker who died an unwarranted and premature death recently, is reported to have had tusks about 2Ms long (6 ft)).
Tusks grow right through the life of an elephant. This has been recorded in several instances and the author himself has on record a sequence of the famous Uda Walawe National Park ( UWNP) icon Walawe Raja, breaking off his right tusk in mid- 2005 and subsequently growing it back over time, until his disappearance in 2009. ( Miththapala, S. 2010)
2.3 Tushes
Asian elephants sometimes sprout small tusk like protrusions, which are called ‘Tushes’. Although they are also incisors (the 2nd set), they are not really tusks. They do not have a pulp cavity and grow only up to about 6 inches and is seen in both males and females. Sometimes tushes do not grow long enough to be visible and can be seen only when the elephant opens its mouth.
2.4 Informal Nomenclature of Sri Lankan Elephants
There is an informal way of referring to different elephants in Sri Lankan village culture based on the presence or absence of tusks as follows.
· Etha - Tusker (male)
· Aliya - Male without tusks
· Pussa - Male without tushes
· Ethinna - Female with Tushes
· Alidena (Kenera) – Female without tushes
( de Silva, M & de Silva, P 2007)
2.5 Ivory
The ivory in an elephant’s tusk is unique because in cross section it has a well-defined criss-cross pattern forming a series of diamond shapes, not found in the tusks of other animals. In the hands of skilled Asian craftsman, these tusks are transformed into valuable artifacts. Because of the blatant killing of elephants for tusks, in 1999 the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITIES), constituting of 115 countries decided to ban completely the international trade of ivory with the hope of restoring elephant populations, particularly in Africa, to healthy levels. In 1996 and 1997 major efforts were mounted by certain countries to lift these ban at least partially, and today the elephant is still listed as endangered, with a supporting appendix 1 in the CITIES declaration.
2.6 Elephant Pearls
There a myth in Sri Lankan culture and folklore surrounding the evidence of elephant pearls (Gajamuthu). This popular misconception has it that valuable pearls do sometime grow inside a hollow cavity of the tusks of some elephants. There is some partial truth to this fact, that in some cases, a fragment of calcium does get loose and could be entrapped in the pulp cavity. There could also be other growth of particles inside the trunk, but none of these have any special value.
3. Tuskers in Sri Lanka
3.1 Number of tuskers in the wild
As mentioned earlier, studies have revealed that round 6-7% of the male population of Sri Lankan elephants have tusks. To make even a very approximate estimate, one would first require an accurate number for the wild elephants in Sri Lanka, which is a highly debatable point, given that figures ranging from a low of 3,000 to a high of even 7,000 are being quoted by different sources. When it comes to the estimation of the male/female ratio of elephants in the wild, there appears to be some indicative data, of around 51% the wild population being males. ( de Silva, M & de Silva, P 2007)
Hence, if one were to assume 4,000 elephants in the wild, out of which 51% would be males, then a figure of about 100-150 tuskers in the wild today would be estimated. However, there is no available and conclusive research or study currently available to confirm this.
3.2 Number of tuskers in the captivity
With the banning of the capturing of elephants from the wild in 1960s, the captive population of elephants has been dwindling over the years. From about 300 elephants in captivity in the early 1980s, this number has drastically reduced to around 120 elephants today. Given the demand for captive elephants and tuskers in particular, for religious ceremonies in temples, there is a high demand and value placed on the remaining captive tuskers.
The elephant that carries the Sacred Tooth Relics of the Lord Buddha during the pageant in the major temples should necessarily be a a tusker having certain specific characteristics, which places it in the higher caste of elephants. (Sri Lankan elephant folklore and mythology has it that there are 10 different castes of elephants (Deriniyagala 1955) with the ‘Sadhantha’ caste elephants being the highest ). Due to the dearth of good captive tuskers, periodically Sri Lankan temples have imported young tuskers from Thailand and India (The late Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India gifted a young tusker, ‘Indi Raja’ to the Kandy high temple the Dalada Maligawa, in 1986 when it was 6 years old, who is now one of the few available elephants to carry the Relics at the famous Kandy Perahera.) Currently from a captive population of some 120 elephants only 20 are tuckers. From these 20, only 7 had the necessary physical pre-requisites to carry the sacred relics. One of them, Navam Raja died a few days ago, while two of the others are ailing. ( Maligawa Web site)
3.3. Distribution of Tuskers in Sri Lanka
It has been shown that the tusker population in Sri Lanka is relatively small. However within this small population, there is sufficient reason to believe that they are appears to be a high incidence of tuskers in certain areas of the island. They are appears to be a higher incidence of tuskers in the North Western and North Central provinces as well as in the South East area (many photographers have been able to capture in one frame, up to 3 or 4 tuskers in the Kalawewa area regularly, while Yala being the most popular national wild life park has recorded many iconic tuskers over the years. Some of Yala’s famous tuskers are Mahaputtuwa, Podiputtuwa, Pelets, Gengis Khan, Kublai Khan, Gamunu, Nandamithra, Thilak, Parakum etc (based on Lal Anthonis’ ongoing studies in Yala). Although living mostly within the protected area of the Yala National Park, several of these magnificent tuskers have met an untimely death when ranging outside the park.
There is also an aberration sometimes to be seen, where in some cases, where the tusks of the elephant grow in opposite direction, sometimes crossing each other completely, leading to the name ‘Puttuwa’. Yala seems to have recorded several of such crossed tuskers.
4.0 The Demise of tuskers in Sri Lanka
Records indicate that in ancient times, Sri Lankan male elephants did have a greater abundance of tusks. History has it that Sri Lanka elephants could be well trained to be used in war and that they were exported in large numbers to the Middle East (Groning,K & Saller, M 1999). Most of these war elephants were tuskers.
Hence, from a seemingly healthy and abundant wild tusker population in the past century , there has been a drastic reduction of tuskers in the wild in Sri Lanka. In the mid- 1800s, to make way for the expanding plantation sector, there was an open warrant given with a bounty, for hunters to kill elephants. This became a sport, and most of the hunters searched out the bigger males carrying tusks, which was a bigger challenge and prize. Hence thousands of elephants were destroyed during this period, and it could be surmised that a large proportion these animals killed were tuskers. To further compound the problem, rapid development resulted in unplanned human settlements being set up in traditional elephant lands, fragmenting their movements and restricting their migratory patterns. This would have curtailed the movement of the few remaining tuskers, thus effectively isolating the gene pool, reducing cross fertilization among herds, and in turn reducing the proliferation of the tuskers in the wild.
Evolution also may have been taking its course, and selectively reducing the number of tuskers because they were the most robust of the males who would take the greater risks in searching for food, newer habitats and receptive females, thus having greater altercations with humans and having a greater mortality rate. (Research done by the Oxford University in Africa has revealed that the size of an African elephant tusks has reduced in the last century, most probably due to the evolutionary process taking its course over time).
5 . Future of Tuskers in the Wild
There is very little hope that a healthy and robust tusker population in the wild in Sri Lanka will grow, or for that matter even be stable. The habitat is far too fragmented to sustain a healthy breeding population of tuskers in the wild. However, if some concerted efforts are made to firstly identify if certain areas do actually have a higher incidence of tuskers, and if so, protect and carefully manage these populations, perhaps we can at least try to sustain some tuskers in select areas.