By Rathindra Kuruwita

Neither President Gotabaya Rajapaksa nor a government representative had responded to a letter sent by environmentalists requesting that the new Elephant Holding Ground (EHG) project at Lunugamvehera National Park be stopped, Supun Lahiru Prakash of the Biodiversity Conservation and Research Circle told The Island yesterday.

Prakash said that they had brought to the President’s notice that the project, funded by the World Bank, would be a colossal waste of money, at a time when the country was trying to reduce unnecessary expenditure.

“We pointed out that the existing EHG in Horowpathana had been a failure, and a recent report by the Auditor General proved that we were right. AG has said that future EHGs should be established only if the one at Horowpathana could be successfully run.”

However, Wildlife officials have already started work on the EHG in Lunugamvehera National Park and over 10% of the total park area encompassing 3,500 hectares have been earmarked for the project. The establishment of that holding ground would only lead to more elephant deaths and an increased human-elephant conflict in the surrounding areas, environmentalists have warned.

Prakash said: “The AG’s report says that according to the elephant census conducted in June 2019, out of all the elephants retained in the holding ground, 12 died; five died of malnutrition and lack of sufficient food. Another two elephants died due to being translocated to the holding ground. It was observed that the health condition of the elephants retained at the holding ground remained poor, and no follow-up action has been taken on the health of these animals.”

Prakash said that usually when elephants faced food scarcity, male elephants would raid homesteads in search of food; female elephants and calives remained in the EHG and suffered. A large number of other animals also lived in the Lunugamvehera National Park and the establishment of the EHG would also affect their habitat and survival, the environmentalist said.

“This whole concept that an elephant could be ‘rehabilitated’ by placing it in what is essentially an open air prison is ill-conceived. This idea is not based on science. Recently, a committee was appointed by the President and it submitted a report, which says the human-elephant conflict can only be solved by protecting the forests and home ranges of the elephants. Elephants are emotionally attached to the area that they are born and grow up in and there have been many instances where the animals sent to Horowpathana returned to their original habitat.”

Prakash said that over 50 elephants had been sent to the EHG at Horowpathana but only a handful were left there now and that Wildlife officials had no idea what had happened to the elephants that had left the Holding Ground.

“These animals then move through areas in which people have no experience in dealing with them. These encounters are deadly for both humans and animals. Hundreds of millions of rupees were pumped into making Horowpathana work and all that money was wasted. That is why we urge the government to stop doing the same thing in Lunugamvehera.”