Features

Traveling in Russia for UNESCO and more of life in Paris

Published

3 years ago

2023/06/25

Thilina Walpola

At IPDC Conference in Tashkent with UNESCO Director General M’bow

(Excerpted from volume ii of the Sarath Amunugama autobiography)

In the final years of the gerontocracy that ruled the Communist Party and the USSR we received the green light to have the annual general meeting of the Internatioal Programme for the Development of Communications (IPDC) in the Soviet Union. This was a special plus for the IPDC because till now its main backers were the Third World countries and the Nordic group. The Soviet delegation which included the general manager of Tass News Agency as well as Zassousky of Moscow University and several top brass from the Foreign Ministry managed to convince the old men in the Kremlin that it was in their interest to ally with the many Third World countries associated with UNESCO and IPDC.

As if to reinforce their Third world connections it was suggested that the meeting be held in Tashkent – the capital of Socialist Uzbekistan. The USSR had already built up Tashkent as their window to Asia. For instance, the Tashkent Film Festival was well known in Asia and Africa. The city had the infrastructure to mount a global conference. Preparatory work for the meeting was assigned to me and my office. My counterpart was Sasha, an official in the USSR Embassy in Paris, who was charged with UNESCO relations.

We struck up an instant friendship as we had to travel many times to Moscow together to finalize arrangements for the meeting. Since it was a high level UN conference M’Bow himself would attend it. Having received a battering from the western press the DG looked forward to the choreographed welcome he was bound to receive in the USSR. This was a difficult time for him since the spat with the USA had led to him being demonized in the Western media.

He discovered too late that it was not possible to win over the western media if you take on the Jewish lobby. Once the press begins to demonize you, it becomes difficult even for political leaders to help you. M’Bow was beginning to go down the slippery slope and he found that the popularity of the IPDC among all political camps gave him a chance to mend fences. But the Reagan administration did not approve of him on the Israeli issue.

The US left UNESCO, which created a gaping hole in our budget. Japan came to the rescue by increasing its contribution. But there was a price tag to the rescue act. It began to suggest changes at the top and very soon M’Bow was replaced by a Japanese Secretary General.

Kremlin

While preparations for the Tashkent meeting brought me to Moscow many times, I also had to negotiate some tricky points with the Communist Party bureaucrats. One such issue was regarding visas. Any UN meeting presupposes the issuing of visas to all participants recommended by it. The host country cannot impose any conditions regarding the travel and security of the participants once they are within its borders.

All arrangements for board and lodging of participants must be approved by us. All this had to be handled sensitively as the US had added several anti-Communist hardliners to their observer delegation perhaps hoping to sow confusion. In all probability these delegates would not have been issued visas if they had applied directly to Moscow. Among these hardliners or ‘cold war warriors’ was Alan Weinstein, a University Professor who had published a lengthy volume presenting evidence to prove his thesis that the killing of John F Kennedy was the act of a ‘lone assassin’ and was not a conspiracy.

Weinstein was considered to be a USSR watcher for Reagan. He was joined in the journey to Tashkent by an alcoholic Californian journalist Nossiter who was a favourite of the US President. It looked very much as though the US delegation was expecting some mishap which could be highlighted at home in their ongoing effort to vilify the United Nations. So we had to be extra careful in our preliminary arrangements.

While in Moscow I took time off for sightseeing. The city was full of old dynastic buildings. The multi-coloured churches with their onion like domes were an architectural wonder. The massive Red Square in the Kremlin with a lit up lone red star looking down from the highest building was an inspiring sight to me, who as an undergraduate at Peradeniya, had pored over books written about the historic Red revolution of the Bolsheviks led by Lenin.

To my pleasant surprise my guide to the historic sites of the city was Ordzhonikidze – the great grandson of a fellow Georgian revolutionary and comrade of Stalin. The original Sergo Ordzhonikidze was one of the heroes of the revolution. He was rare among the early leaders to die unscathed by the terror launched by Stalin. Stalin named one of his battle ships after him. However the latest research has thrown doubt about the manner of his death.

My guide was a young man well versed in the history of the revolution. He took me to the Museum of the Revolution which narrates the history of that epochal event. Communists have no hesitation in rewriting history to fit their current preoccupations. For example in all the old photos of revolutionary leaders, Trotsky had been air brushed out. Since I was familiar with the original photos from Isaac Deutscher’s books I asked my guide about it.

His answer shocked me. He told me that he had not even heard of such a name. He added that none in his generation knew of Trotsky. We then visited the Lenin Mausoleum to view Lenin’s embalmed body which a writer has described as a ‘communist relic’. By this time Khrushchev had ensured that Stalin’s sarcophagus which had lain side by side with Lenin’s was removed from the viewing hall. The Russians are obsessed with sarcophagi.

In the basements of the old churches with onion domes – of the Russian Orthodox Church – in ancient boxes lie the remains of church leaders of the past years. The communists have buried the remains of ancient kings but have left the churchmen alone in the crypts. I remembered that Moscow is only a part of the story. The revolution took place in St Petersburg with its Winter Palace.

Much later, on an official visit there with President Mahinda Rajapaksa I was able to imagine the drama at the beginning of the Russian Revolution. The ship ‘Aurora’ which figures largely in history because the sailors mutinied and threatened to bombard Petersburg in support of the revolutionaries was, we saw, moored in Petersburg harbour. But Moscow became the new capital. Ordinokidze and I motored to the outskirts of Moscow to see last ditch defences Stalin had set up to prevent Hitler’s tanks rolling down to take the beleaguered capital which housed Stalin and the Central Committees.

Soviet Tanks and soldiers had made a heroic stand there and driven back the Nazis. After the guided tour we lunched at Moscow’s famous five star restaurant `Matryoshka’ on Katuzovsky Avenue, which was a popular meeting place of the Moscow elite. I went back to my Hotel Moskva and got ready for the highlight of my tour, the visit to the Bolshoi Theatre to see ‘Swan Lake’ danced by the world famous Bolshoi Ballet. I had seen ‘Swan Lake’ in Paris, Berlin [called ‘Schwansee’ in German] and London but the Bolshoi version was the most breathtaking, both for the dancing and Tchaikovsky’s music.

After this encounter I was ready to fly back to Paris. My friend Sasha of the Paris embassy then introduced me to a touching traditional Russian gesture. He brought a home cooked loaf of bread wrapped in a bandana. His wife, who was a teacher of English in a University, had baked the bread. In the past in Russia when a family member or friend undertook a long journey his loved ones would cook him a loaf of bread, wrap it and hand it over so that he would not go hungry. I too was given that touching honour and was greatly moved.

Promising to come back, I took the Air France flight back to Paris and home after a wonderful experience in Soviet Russia. By a coincidence seated next to me on the flight was Bala Tampoe who was one of my heroes from University days. We talked and on the following day I took him out to lunch in a posh hotel close to the ‘Le Monde’ office where Bala had an interview with a French journalist.

Tashkent

The Tashkent meeting was quite a victory for the newly formed IPDC. The international situation was moving towards dialogue and nations were looking for signals, however small they may appear at first, of a thaw in the Cold War. The USSR was in a state of paralysis after a period of rule by geriatric leaders. Gorbachev was in the wings and soon ‘Perestroika’ and ‘Glasnost’ was to emerge to shake up the Communist world.

As mentioned earlier Ronald Reagan sent a delegation of right wing hardliners to Tashkent. They were carefully handled by the State Department officials who came along with them from Washington. They came expecting a frosty reception but the USSR and our staff made sure that they felt comfortable as they were invited to many meals, and especially drinking sessions, in the best Tashkent restaurants. According to American Foreign service officers, their report to Reagan was conciliatory.

Sensing the value of this meeting M’Bow himself attended the conference. He was treated with great respect by the USSR authorities, which was a contrast to the way in which he had been treated by a visiting US under-secretary. At the meeting, defying expectations of a boycott, western delegates who provided most of the funds, were happy that IPDC was short on rhetoric but had successfully collected funds and launched many projects to improve communications facilities in the poorer nations.

The USSR also by selecting Tashkent had signaled that they were on the side of the developing nations. Tashkent was their gateway to Asia and the “third world” countries. They had invested heavily in providing hotels and conference centres in the city. Though we were put up in the best hotel we got a shock when an earthquake hit Tashkent and we had to run out to the open in the night till the tremors subsided. It was a comic sight to see the distinguished delegates congregating on the lawn in their night clothes. Later we were assured that such tremors were not exceptional and the hotel was built to be earthquake proof I doubt whether our seasoned diplomats bought that story in its entirety.

Samarkand

After the grand finale of the meeting USSR authorities had arranged an excursion to Samarkand for the participants. Samarkand has been described by a poet as “a rose red city half as old as time”. It had been the cradle of the Mughal, which later became a famous centre of Islamic learning. We saw one of the oldest Universities of the world with its warren like rooms for the young scholars who then traversed Asia and the Middle East propagating the Islamic faith.

They were also the early scientists and astronomers who advanced learning in mathematics and tracking of changes in the sky and stars. The world’s oldest telescope to observe the skies was located in Samarkand. The Tashkent meeting brought me even closer to the Asian delegates to UNESCO and IPDC. Among them was G. Parthasarathy, the head of the Indian delegation. GP was close to the Nehru family having been the PMs roving ambassador. He was India’s Ambassador to Vietnam at a crucial time when Nehru was called upon to be a mediator in the growing political crisis in that country. We became close friends with consequences that I will describe later in this chapter.

The UNESCO top brass was pleased with our management of the conference. M’Bow held a reception for the staff and thanked them. When the inevitable cuts foIlowing the US withdrawal came, IPDC was not touched. We were encouraged to keep up our ties with the State Department Officials in Paris who were themselves unhappy about the withdrawal but could do nothing about it. They assured us that eventually the US will return and that is what really happened later. In the meanwhile, USAID with whom we had excellent relations continued several of our projects bilaterally with those countries concerned.

Rue Jean Daudin

As stated earlier with the arrival of my family in Paris I moved to a spacious flat in Rue Jean Daudin which was close to UNESCO headquarters and my office in Rue Miollis. This was a posh quartier in Paris being close to the Eiffel Tower, Trocadero, the Ecole Militaire and Champ de Mars – the most famous park in Paris. The shift of residence from a ‘Red’ working class district to the heart of upper class Paris gave me an opportunity of experiencing different historical cultures of that ancient city.

The topography of Paris is highly segmented on the basis of social class. As a jogger in my new locality I could run past the military school which had produced a Napoleon as well as all the military leaders of World wars including De Gaulle. In fact paratroop commanders led by Generals Salan and Massu, who opposed De Gaulle’s change of policy on Algeria, attempted to assassinate him in front of the Ecole Militaire. This real event forms the backdrop of the famous thriller ‘Day of the Jackal’ which became a bestseller.

I ran past the Invalides – a hospital for war veterans established by Napoleon, which is now a war museum. From there I would reach the Champs de Mars and the Tour Eiffel. Then I would go past the Trocadero, down the steps near the Musee de Homme and back to my home in Rue Jean Daudin. It was a daily chore which not many people would have had the privilege of enjoying. But it was also saddening because my route was dotted with plaques commemorating the resistance fighters who had been put against the wall in those locations and summarily executed by the Gestapo during the Nazi occupation. From time to time old ladies – relatives, girlfriends and surviving comrades-would hobble up to those monuments to lay a bunch of flowers as remembrance of those sad times past.

I then got down to the task of finding schools for my two daughters who were delighted to be in Paris at the best time of their young lives. Ramanika who was 18 enrolled in the American University of Paris while Varuni who was 15 joined the British school of Paris which was located out of the city in idyllic surroundings. The British school bus was parked at the Trocadero and the students, who were mostly from the posh quartiers, had to come there by car or metro.

Varuni would take the Segur Metro to Trocadero first with her mother but soon on her own, and catch the school bus to the suburbs with her mischievous schoolmates who were mostly drawn from UNESCO and embassy families. Occasionally my wife and I visited the school to inquire about Varuni’s progress. We were accompanied by Navaz as an interpreter and two other Sri Lankans. The school management would have been horrified to see a delegation of Asians descending on their school, all intent on following the early baby steps in education of their new entrant Varuni Amunugama.

But both children adapted themselves well and would merge easily with their new friends who were up to their usual pranks in class and on school tours to England, Ireland and parts of Europe. They were both on great demand as ‘baby sitters’ to small children of the super-rich like Bank Directors, Ambassadors and Supermodels who paid them handsomely. With the money so collected the two girls traveled through Europe by train on their own.

In Geneva they were looked after by Jayantha and Maureen Dhanapala. In Rome they stayed with Mahinda Ranaweera and his wife who were UNESCO functionaries there. In Germany they were guests of my wife’s cousin who was married to an embassy official in Bad Godesberg. They were popular ‘baby sitters’ because they spent part of their allowance buying chocolates for their wards.

We also had many Sri Lankan friends staying with us. Namel and Malini Weeramuni, our friends from way back, toured France with some companions in a caravan and I arranged a flat nearby for them to stay while visiting Paris. Lester and Sumitra Peries were regular visitors to Paris. Earlier their good friend Vernon Mendis, who was our Ambassador, had entertained them. They also had friends in the French film industry, some of whom were associated with the Cannes Film Festival.

Sumitra’s film `Loku Duwa’ produced and acted by Geetha Kumarasinghe was selected under a special section in Cannes called ‘Un Certain Regard’ which was a considerable achievement for both Sumitra and Geetha. A lot of work went into making a shorter version of the Sinhala film, subtitling, striking extra prints and launching of a publicity drive in the French media. All this was done and `Loku Duwa’ was screened to an enthusiastic audience.

On another occasion Sumitra visited Paris and stayed with us when one of her films was presented at the Nantes Film Festival. Richard Ross and his wife Jane who were our close friends when they were in Colombo as attaches to the US Embassy, were in Paris serving in the US embassy. They were living on a houseboat moored on the river Seine. Dick and Jane invited us for dinner on their boat. It was a fun party with plenty of drinks and as the music increased in tempo, we were scared that an inebriated guest would jump into the river.

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Features

The Venezuela Model:The new ugly and dangerous world order

Published

2 days ago

2026/01/9

Thilina Walpola

The US armed forces invading Venezuela, removing its President Nicolás Maduro from power and abducting him and his wife Cilia Flores on 3 January 2026, flying them to New York and producing Maduro in a New York kangaroo court is now stale news, but a fact. What is a far more potent fact is the pan-global impotent response to this aggression except in Latin America, China, Russia and a few others.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro described the attack as an “assault on the sovereignty” of Latin America, thereby portraying the aggression as an assault on the whole of Latin America. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva referred to the attack as crossing “an unacceptable line” that set an “extremely dangerous precedent.” Again, one can see his concern goes beyond Venezuela. For Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum the attack was in “clear violation” of the UN Charter, which again is a fact. But when it comes to powerful countries, the UN Charter has been increasingly rendered irrelevant over decades, and by extension, the UN itself. For the French Foreign Minister, the operation went against the “principle of non-use of force that underpins international law” and that lasting political solutions cannot be “imposed by the outside.” UN Secretary General António Guterres said he was “deeply alarmed” about the “dangerous precedent” the United States has set where rules of international law were not being respected. Russia, notwithstanding its bloody and costly entanglement in Ukraine, and China have also issued strong statements.

Comparatively however, many other countries, many of whom are long term US allies who have been vocal against the Russian aggression in Ukraine have been far more sedate in their reaction. Compared to his Foreign Minister, French President Emmanuel Macron said the Venezuelan people could “only rejoice” at the ousting of Maduro while the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz believed Maduro had “led his country into ruin” and that the U.S. intervention required “careful consideration.” The British and EU statements have been equally lukewarm. India’s and Sri Lanka’s statements do not even mention the US while Sri Lanka’s main coalition partner the JVP has issued a strongly worded statement.

Taken together, what is lacking in most of these views, barring a negligible few, especially from the so-called powerful countries, is the moral indignation or outrage on a broad scale that used to be the case in similar circumstances earlier. It appears that a new ugly and dangerous world order has finally arrived, footprints of which have been visible for some time.

It is not that the US has not invaded sovereign countries and affected regime change or facilitated such change for political or economic reasons earlier. This has been attempted in Cuba without success since the 1950s but with success in Chile in 1973 under the auspices of Augusto Pinochet that toppled the legitimate government of president Salvador Allende and established a long-lasting dictatorship friendly towards the US; the invasion of Panama and the ouster and capture of President Manuel Noriega in 1989 and the 2003 invasion of Iraq both of which were conducted under the presidency of George Bush.

These are merely a handful of cross border criminal activities against other countries focused on regime change that the US has been involved in since its establishment which also includes the ouster of President of Guyana Cheddi Jagan in 1964, the US invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965 stop the return of President Juan Bosch to prevent a ‘communist resurgence’; the 1983 US invasion of Grenada after the overthrow and killing of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop purportedly to ensure that the island would not become a ‘Soviet-Cuban’ colony. A more recent adventure was the 2004 removal and kidnapping of the Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, which also had French support.

There is however a difference between all the earlier examples of US aggression and the Venezuelan operation. The earlier operations where the real reasons may have varied from political considerations based on ideological divergence to crude economics, were all couched in the rhetoric of democracy. That is, they were undertaken in the guise of ushering democratic changes in those countries, the region or the world irrespective of the long-term death and destruction which followed in some locations. But in Venezuela under President Donald Trump, it is all about controlling natural resources in that country to satisfy US commercial interests.

The US President is already on record for saying the US will “run” Venezuela until a “safe transition” is concluded and US oil companies will “go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money” – ostensibly for the US and those in Venezuela who will tag the US line. Trump is also on record saying that the main aim of the operation was to regain U.S. oil rights, which according to him were “stolen” when Venezuela nationalized the industry. The nationalization was obviously to ensure that the funds from the industry remained in the country even though in later times this did lead to massive internal corruption.

Let’s be realistic. Whatever the noise of the new rhetoric is, this is not about ‘developing’ Venezuela for the benefit of its people based on some unknown streak of altruism but crudely controlling and exploiting its natural assets as was the case with Iraq. As crude as it is, one must appreciate Trump’s unintelligent honesty stemming from his own unmitigated megalomania. Whatever US government officials may say, the bottom line is the entire operation was planned and carried out purely for commercial and monetary gain while the pretext was Maduro being ‘a narco-terrorist.’ There is no question that Maduro was a dictator who was ruining his own country. But there is also no question that it is not the business of the US or any other country to decide what his or Venezuela’s fate is. That remains with the Venezuelan people.

What is dangerous is, the same ‘narco-terrorist’ rhetoric can also be applied to other Latin American countries such as Columbia, Brazil and Mexico which also produce some of the narcotics that come into the US consumer markets. The response should be not to invade these countries to stem the flow, but to deal with the market itself, which is the US. In real terms what Trump has achieved with his invasion of Venezuela for purely commercial gain and greed, followed by the abject silence or lukewarm reaction from most of the world, is to create a dangerous and ugly new normal for military actions across international borders. The veneer of democracy has also been dispensed with.

The danger lies in the fact that this new doctrine or model Trump has devised can similarly be applied to any country whose resources or land a powerful megalomaniac leader covets as long as he has unlimited access to military assets of his country, backed by the dubius remnants of the political and social safety networks, commonsense and ethics that have been conveniently dismantled. This is a description of the present-day United States too. This danger is boosted when the world remains silent. After the success of the Venezuela operation, Trump has already upended his continuing threats to annex Greenland because “we need Greenland from the standpoint of national security.” Greenland too is not about security, but commerce given its vast natural resources.

Hours after Venezuela, Trump threatened the Colombian President Gustavo Petro to “watch his ass.” In the present circumstances, Canadians also would not have forgotten Trump’s threat earlier in 2025 to annex Canada. But what the US President and his current bandwagon replete with arrogance and depleted intelligence would not understand is, beyond the short-term success of the Venezuela operation and its euphoria, the dangerous new normal they have ushered in would also create counter threats towards the US, the region and the world in a scale far greater than what exists today. The world will also become a far less safe place for ordinary American citizens.

More crucially, it will also complicate global relations. It would no longer be possible for the mute world leaders to condemn Russian action in Ukraine or if China were to invade Taiwan. The model has been created by Trump, and these leaders have endorsed it. My reading is that their silence is not merely political timidity, but strategic to their own national and self-interest, to see if the Trump model could be adopted in other situations in future if the fallout can be managed.

The model for the ugly new normal has been created and tested by Trump. Its deciding factors are greed and dismantled ethics. It is now up to other adventurers to fine tune it. We would be mere spectators and unwitting casualties.

Features

Beyond the beauty: Hidden risks at waterfalls

Published

2 days ago

2026/01/9

Thilina Walpola

Bambarakanda waterfall. Image courtesy LANKA EXCURSIONS HOLIDAYS

Sri Lanka is blessed with a large number of scenic waterfalls, mainly concentrated in the central highlands. These natural features substantially enhance the country’s attractiveness to tourists. Further, these famous waterfalls equally attract thousands of local visitors throughout the year.

While waterfalls offer aesthetic appeal, a serene environment, and recreational opportunities, they also pose a range of significant hazards. Unfortunately, the visitors are often unable to identify these different types of risks, as site-specific safety information and proper warning signs are largely absent. In most locations, only general warnings are displayed, often limited to the number of past fatalities. This can lead visitors to assume that bathing is the sole hazard, which is not the case. Therefore, understanding the full range of waterfall-related risks and implementing appropriate safety measures is essential for preventing loss of life. This article highlights site-specific hazards to raise public awareness and prevent people from putting their lives at risk due to these hidden dangers.

Flash floods and resultant water surges

Flash floods are a significant hazard in hill-country waterfalls. According to the country’s topography, most of the streams originate from the catchments in the hilly areas upstream of the waterfalls. When these catchments receive intense rainfalls, the subsequent runoff will flow down as flash floods. This will lead to an unexpected rise in the flow of the waterfall, increasing the risk of drowning and even sweeping away people. Therefore, bathing at such locations is extremely dangerous, and those who are even at the river banks have to be vigilant and should stay away from the stream as much as possible. The Bopath Ella, Ravana Ella, and a few waterfalls located in the Belihul Oya area, closer to the A99 road, are classic examples of this scenario.

Water currents

The behaviour of water in the natural pool associated with the waterfall is complex and unpredictable. Although the water surface may appear calm, strong subsurface currents and hydraulic forces exist that even a skilled swimmer cannot overcome. Hence, a person who immerses confidently may get trapped inside and disappear. Water from a high fall accelerates rapidly, forming hydraulic jumps and vortices that can trap swimmers or cause panic. Hence, bathing in these natural pools should be totally avoided unless there is clear evidence that they are safe.

Slipping risks

Slipping is a common hazard around waterfalls. Sudden loss of footing can lead to serious injuries or fatal falls into deep pools or rock surfaces. The area around many waterfalls consists of steep, slippery rocks due to moisture and the growth of algae. Sometimes, people are overconfident and try to climb these rocks for the thrill of it and to get a better view of the area. Further, due to the presence of submerged rocks, water depths vary in the natural pool area, and there is a chance of sliding down along slippery rocks into deep water. Waterfalls such as Diyaluma, Bambarakanda, and Ravana Falls are likely locations for such hazards, and caution around these sites is a must.

Rockfalls

Rockfalls are a significant hazard around waterfalls in steep terrains. Falling rocks can cause serious injuries or fatalities, and smaller stones may also be carried by fast-flowing water. People bathing directly beneath waterfalls, especially smaller ones, are therefore exposed to a high risk of injury. Accordingly, regardless of the height of the waterfall, bathing under the falling water should be avoided.

Hypothermia and cold shock

Hypothermia is a drop in body temperature below 35°C due to cold exposure. This leads to mental confusion, slowed heartbeat, muscle stiffening, and even cardiac arrest may follow. Waterfalls in Nuwara Eliya district often have very low water temperatures. Hence, immersing oneself in these waters is dangerous, particularly for an extended period.

Human negligence

Additional hazards also arise from visitors’ own negligence. Overcrowding at popular waterfalls significantly increases the risk of accidents, including slips and falls from cliffs. Sometimes, visitors like to take adventurous photographs in dangerous positions. Reckless behavior, such as climbing over barriers, ignoring warning signs, or swimming in prohibited zones, amplifies the risk.

Mitigation and safety

measures

Mitigation of waterfall-related hazards requires a combination of public awareness, engineering solutions, and policy enforcement. Clear warning signs that indicate the specific hazards associated with the water fall, rather than general hazard warnings, must be fixed. Educating visitors verbally and distributing bills that include necessary guidelines at ticket counters, where applicable, will be worth considering. Furthermore, certain restrictions should vary depending on the circumstances, especially seasonal variation of water flow, existing weather, etc.

Physical barriers should be installed to prevent access to dangerous areas by fencing. A viewing platform can protect people from many hazards discussed above. For bathing purposes, safer zones can be demarcated with access facilities.

Installing an early warning system for heavily crowded waterfalls like Bopath Ella, which is prone to flash floods, is worth implementing. Through a proper mechanism, a warning system can alert visitors when the upstream area receives rainfall that may lead to flash floods in the stream.

At present, there are hardly any officials to monitor activities around waterfalls. The local authorities that issue tickets and collect revenue have to deploy field officers to these waterfalls sites for monitoring the activities of visitors. This will help reduce not only accidents but also activities that cause environmental pollution and damage. We must ensure that these natural treasures remain a source of wonder rather than danger.

(The writer is a chartered Civil Engineer specialising in water resources engineering)

By Eng. Thushara Dissanayake ✍️

Features

From sacred symbol to silent victim: Sri Lanka’s elephants in crisis

Published

2 days ago

2026/01/9

Thilina Walpola

The year 2025 began with grim news. On 1st January, a baby elephant was struck and killed by a train in Habarana, marking the start of a tragic series of elephant–train collisions that continued throughout the year. In addition to these incidents, the nation mourned the deaths of well-known elephants such as Bathiya and Kandalame Hedakaraya, among many others. As the year drew on, further distressing reports emerged, including the case of an injured elephant that was burnt with fire, an act of extreme cruelty that ultimately led to its death. By the end of the year, Sri Lanka recorded the highest number of elephant deaths in Asia.

This sorrowful reality stands in stark contrast to Sri Lanka’s ancient spiritual heritage. Around 250 BCE, at Mihintale, Arahant Mahinda delivered the Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta (The Shorter Discourse on the Simile of the Elephant’s Footprint) to King Devanampiyatissa, marking the official introduction of Buddhism to the island. The elephant, a symbol deeply woven into this historic moment, was once associated with wisdom, restraint, and reverence.

Yet the recent association between Mihintale and elephants has been anything but noble. At Mihintale an elephant known as Ambabo, already suffering from a serious injury to his front limb due to human–elephant conflict (HEC), endured further cruelty when certain local individuals attempted to chase him away using flaming torches, burning him with fire. Despite the efforts of wildlife veterinary surgeons, Ambabo eventually succumbed to his injuries. The post-mortem report confirmed severe liver and kidney impairment, along with extensive trauma caused by the burns.

Was prevention possible?

The question that now arises is whether this tragedy could have been prevented.

To answer this, we must examine what went wrong.

When Ambabo first sustained an injury to his forelimb, he did receive veterinary treatment. However, after this initial care, no close or continuous monitoring was carried out. This lack of follow-up is extremely dangerous, especially when an injured elephant remains near human settlements. In such situations, some individuals may attempt to chase, harass, or further harm the animal, without regard for its condition.

A similar sequence of events occurred in the case of Bathiya. He was initially wounded by a trap gun—devices generally intended for poaching bush meat rather than targeting elephants. Following veterinary treatment, his condition showed signs of improvement. Tragically, while he was still recovering, he was shot a second time behind the ear. This second wound likely damaged vital nerves, including the vestibular nerve, which plays a critical role in balance, coordination of movement, gaze stabilisation, spatial orientation, navigation, and trunk control. In effect, the second shooting proved far more devastating than the first.

After Bathiya received his initial treatment, he was left without proper protection due to the absence of assigned wildlife rangers. This critical gap in supervision created the opportunity for the second attack. Only during the final stages of his suffering were the 15th Sri Lanka Artillery Regiment, the 9th Battalion of the Sri Lanka National Guard, and the local police deployed—an intervention that should have taken place much earlier.

Likewise, had Ambabo been properly monitored and protected after his injury, it is highly likely that his condition would not have deteriorated to such a tragic extent.

It should also be mentioned that when an injured animal like an elephant is injured, the animal will undergo a condition that is known as ‘capture myopathy’. It is a severe and often fatal condition that affects wild animals, particularly large mammals such as elephants, deer, antelope, and other ungulates. It is a stress-induced disease that occurs when an animal experiences extreme physical exertion, fear, or prolonged struggle during capture, restraint, transport, or pursuit by humans. The condition develops when intense stress causes a surge of stress hormones, leading to rapid muscle breakdown. This process releases large amounts of muscle proteins and toxins into the bloodstream, overwhelming vital organs such as the kidneys, heart, and liver. As a result, the animal may suffer from muscle degeneration, dehydration, metabolic acidosis, and organ failure. Clinical signs of capture myopathy include muscle stiffness, weakness, trembling, incoordination, abnormal posture, collapse, difficulty breathing, dark-coloured urine, and, in severe cases, sudden death. In elephants, the condition can also cause impaired trunk control, loss of balance, and an inability to stand for prolonged periods. Capture myopathy can appear within hours of a stressful event or may develop gradually over several days. So, if the sick animal is harassed like it happened to Ambabo, it does only make things worse. Unfortunately, once advanced symptoms appear, treatment is extremely difficult and survival rates are low, making prevention the most effective strategy.

What needs to be done?

Ambabo’s harassment was not an isolated incident; at times injured elephants have been subjected to similar treatment by local communities. When an injured elephant remains close to human settlements, it is essential that wildlife officers conduct regular and continuous monitoring. In fact, it should be made mandatory to closely observe elephants in critical condition for a period even after treatment has been administered—particularly when they remain in proximity to villages. This approach is comparable to admitting a critically ill patient to a hospital until recovery is assured.

At present, such sustained monitoring is difficult due to the severe shortage of staff in the Department of Wildlife Conservation. Addressing this requires urgent recruitment and capacity-building initiatives, although these solutions cannot be realised overnight. In the interim, it is vital to enlist the support of the country’s security forces. Their involvement is not merely supportive—it is essential for protecting both wildlife and people.

To mitigate HEC, a Presidential Committee comprising wildlife specialists developed a National Action Plan in 2020. The strategies outlined in this plan were selected for their proven effectiveness, adaptability across different regions and timeframes, and cost-efficiency. The process was inclusive, incorporating extensive consultations with the public and relevant authorities. If this Action Plan is fully implemented, it holds strong potential to significantly reduce HEC and prevent tragedies like the suffering endured by Ambabo. In return it will also benefit villagers living in those areas.

In conclusion, I would like to share the wise words of Arahant Mahinda to the king, which, by the way, apply to every human being:

O’ great king, the beasts that roam the forest and birds that fly the skies have the same right to this land as you. The land belongs to the people and to all other living things, and you are not its owner but only its guardian.

by Tharindu Muthukumarana ✍️
tharinduele@gmail.com
(Author of the award-winning book “The Life of Last Proboscideans: Elephants”)