Episode 21 – Gal Oya National Park

The rescuing of young elephant

As far as I remember, this incident happened in 2008. I then worked as a Veterinary Surgeon in the Eastern Region of the Wildlife Department. At that time, the LTTE was war there. There were guns among the people and hunting of wild animals was frequent. There were incidents where elephants were also shot. Elephants roam throughout the Eastern province especially in Amapara area and we could often see herds of elephants there.

The said elephant calf was shot in the leg and back. The young elephant is about 8 years old. This herd of elephants was in Galoya National Park. When we received the message, the young elephant that was shot was resting on a nearby island. Herds of elephants are visited to these islands in search of food. When the water level decreases, grass grows in the submerged part of the island. Herds of elephants swim back to the park after grazing. Fishermen know when that elephant herds come and go. They do not stay in the island in those days. The island where the baby elephant stayed was an island of about 10 acres; the land area changes depending on the water level and according to the water level at that time. This island is not completely submerged in water. A dense forest was present in the middle while grassland area was around the island. Although it came with a herd to graze, the calf was left alone on the island due to injuries and unable to swim back with the herd.

The fishermen informed the staff of Galoya National Park about the young elephant. We were informed by Galoya Park and Buddhika Withanage who was the caretaker of Galoya Park at that time.  Mr. Budhika, a school friend of mine helped us by providing boats, additional staff and necessary things to go there and treat the baby elephant.

By that time, I had only been in the service for 4 years and had little experience. It was my first time to treat an elephant on an island. My staff consisted of Wildlife Assistant Ranger Lawrence Benjamin, Wildlife Guard Sugath Jayathilake, Assistant Wildlife Guard Chamil Prasad, Sandun Hemanayake, who is now a Ranger and driver Karunaratne. This driver is also often involved in treatment work.

It was a challenge for us to go by boat and treat the elephant on the island. The elephant comes to the field around 3:00 pm. We all left the boat to treat the elephant. There were about 10 people there and we looked through the binoculars from the boat. After about an hour, the elephant came to the field. We wanted to administer anesthesia from the boat in view of if the boat approaches, the elephant will go to the forest. Lawrence Benjamin was good at giving sedative medicine to the elephant right from the boat.

After medicine, we got off the boat and slowly followed the baby elephant’s footprints. We found a half-conscious baby elephant leaning against a tree.

This scene was a surprise to the staff of the Galoya National Park who were with us at that time. They had never seen an elephant that sleeps standing up. When the distance between the elephant and us was about 8 feet, we started injecting antibiotics. After the baby elephant slept soundly, we cleaned the wounds and treated them.There was a wound on the inner side of the front leg. Sugath Jayathilaka went between the elephant’s legs and cleansed the wound, although I warned him not to do so. After removing the pus and cleaning the wounds, everyone is very happy. We got on the boat after giving medicine to the baby elephant and waited. After some time, the baby elephant came to the tank field.

After that, we treated the baby elephant on several occasions, and no anesthesia was needed. Elephants that get injured often die. We saw this baby elephant recovering. The baby elephant grew up gradually. The young elephant reportedly swam away from the island, according to the fisherman later.

An indelible memory that makes me happy is saving the young elephant’s life despite adversity.