Episode 3 – Kaudulla National Park

A Close Call

This incident occurred on a Poya day in the month of September 2004, at the ‘KithulUthuwa’ area, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Kaudalla National Park. At the time, my rank was that of ‘Wildlife Ranger Class 1’ of Polonnaruwaunder Kaudalla National Park.

After midnight, around 12:45 am, I received word of an illegal timber transportation about to take place from ‘AluthOya’ to ‘Madirigiriya,’ passing through Kaudalla National Park. I was part of a posse of eight officials, two of which were Rangers; Mr. Rathnayaka and Mr. Pushpakumara, along with the driver of the cab, Mr. Thilakaratna, who went on the raid to catch the perpetrators in the act.

From our experience, those who engage in the unsanctioned cutting down and transportation of timber, are also not above poaching, being seasoned hunters with weapons and ammunition. After arriving at the destination and parking our vehicle a fair distance away from the road, I instructed my group to stay put and wait until called upon, while three of us went to ‘Kotuathu’ (man-made concealment spots in the ground built by accumulating fallen branches, dry leaves and various plants, for the purpose of hide in and hunting animals coming to the waterfront) to observe and report any suspicious activity. It is common practice to build a ‘Kotuathu’ in close proximity to a water source, in our case, it happened to be a stream.

With only the feeble streaks of moonlight emerging through the thick canopy to illuminate our surroundings, for we had turned off all flashlights for fear of alerting any no-do-wells, I along with the field assistant and the driver followed, cautiously made our way to inspect  Kotuathu locations. I headed towards a great ‘Kumbuk’ tree growing beside a nearby Kotuathu. Perhaps it was my nerves, excited with the prospect of the upcoming ambush, that I barely had time to recognize the rank scent and register the presence of the massive bull elephant standing at an arms-length before me.

Had it not been for the remarkable, involuntary response provoked by survival instinct; kicking into gear at the moment of grave peril, and forcing me to dodge out of the angry behemoth’s way at the nick of time, I would not be alive today to tell this tale. The gargantuan beast’s roar of rage and our terrified screams aggregated into a deafening explosion of sound that ripped and echoed throughout the silent, peaceful forest.

Once the enraged colossus had retreated into the thicket and we had managed to gain some semblance of our bearings, I heard panicked voices shouting and yelling that did not emanate from any one of us. In our hesitation to gather our senses, we had become completely oblivious to our mission, the suspects were alerted to our presence of and were now shooting haphazardly in our general direction. We were able to duck for cover just in time to avoid getting hit a but in the aftermath of the sudden chaos, the rest of our team, who were ignorant of our exact position for we had failed signal them, also started firing in our direction. Ironically, we ended up dodging fire from both friend and foe.

It took us a while to distinguish the friendly fire from that of the hostiles, but by that time the gunfire from the suspects had started to slow down, until finally, it ceased. We made our way towards the enemy base to find eight bikes with wooden planks tied to each one. Our attackers had fled the scene on foot.

Even though we failed to catch the crooks, our spirits were lifted and soared with the understanding that there were no grave injuries or casualties among us, despite several close and frequent calls with death. Everything was well.