Episode 5 – Minneriya National Park

An experience of life and death

One day when I was at the Wilgamuwa office I received a message saying that an injured elephant was in the Minneriya area. I went  to treat it with two assistants Gamunu and Jeewaka. The jungle around the Minneriya tank was an elephant habitat.

The Minneriya tank dam was destroyed a couple of hundred years ago but recently renovated. There are therefore thousands of mature trees submerged in the water, but as the level drops in the dry season, those dead trees gradually begin to emerge. They provide a wonderful opportunity for a perching and nesting site for thousands of birds that rely on a fishy diet.  As the water level in the tank recedes, lush grasslands appear which are capable of feeding hundreds of elephants, These green pastures, stretching for thousands of acres with the exposed dead trees reaching skywards crowded with flocks of birds and the elephants grazing below, create a grand spectacle. 

On the day that we visited the area we saw elephants by the hundreds feeding there.  As we drove the vehicle all over the place searching for the injured one, we eventually spotted a huge elephant at the corner of the tank. From its behavior and the information received, we suspected it to be the one we were looking for. Getting closer to it, we observed it splashing mud on a wound on the right lateral side of it’s belly. It was such a huge wound it made us wonder how it could possibly have happened.  The elephant was definitely suffering, as the wound had festered and the flies were attacking it. In addition, a gunshot injury could be seen on the left front leg above the knee. This too had festered, though it was not so serious. Another thing we noticed was that it was blind in one eye.

I decided to tranquilize and treat it. Driving a short distance away, we prepared our equipment. In the meantime, the elephant had come on to the dry area of the grassland, leaving the water’s edge behind it. Although we had wanted to dart it and have it drop within the grassland, the elephant had walked out to the edge of the tank and we could not reach it in the vehicle.  It was going to be a risky job for us to get to it on foot particularly as we had no skilled assistants. I planned to make use of its blind eye and use it to my advantage so, leaving the vehicle, we crept up to it on its blind side to prepare for darting.

Jeewaka followed me with a shotgun.  Crawling forward, we slowly approached the elephant.  About 50 yards away, I targeted correctly and the dart struck its mark. It became agitated and turned towards us but did not see us as we were stretched out on the ground. Sensing it was in danger it started running towards the jungle. We ran back to the vehicle and drove towards the elephant to block its way. Our attempts to stop it failed as it was running among other elephants entering the jungle, placing us in a very dangerous situation. It was a fairly thick patch of jungle with elephant tracks crisscrossing everywhere, making it extremely difficult to follow one particular set of footprints. Carrying our equipment, we started on a dangerous mission. To have only three people in the team is nowhere near sufficient for such an operation and, in addition, the other two were novices facing such a situation for the first time.

Safety was most important, as elephants were everywhere and we were following a potentially dangerous one that was agitated and knew it was being followed.  Fortunately, after walking for about 100 metres into the jungle we were able to recognize the tracks of the sedated elephant. There appeared to be a dragging effect in the footprints, which was a positive sign that the tranquilizer had started working. Expecting to see the unconscious elephant, we carried on. Fortunately for us, it had fallen on the path without any hindrance to its normal breathing.

Straightaway we managed to clean some of the wounds and inject all necessary antibiotics and other supportive medicines. We could not properly clean the wound at the right lateral abdomen as the animal had fallen on that side. However, we knew that our medicine would help it to get rid of maggots and irritation while enhancing the healing process. I took a photo of my two assistants standing beside the unconscious   elephant as it was their first experience of tranquilizing such an animal. After administering the recovery injection, we watched it from a safe distance but were worried because it was not getting up even though we poked it with a branch. After a while, it began to show signs of recovery so we moved further away for our own safety. However, it did not stand up but was resting on its chest.  The posture of sternal recumbence is not recommended for elephants, as it can lead to respiratory complications which in turn could lead to suffocation. I wanted to make it stand upright.

Under such circumstances, the normal procedure is to light some crackers to frighten it into getting up but this was not possible as other elephants feeding in the grassland would rush into the jungle in chaos.  It was now nearly 6 p.m. and was getting dark. Making a noise, foot by foot we approached our motionless elephant that had its eye focused on us but with no other reaction. We tried again to poke it with a branch to disturb it.  Suddenly it stood up and turned around to chase us as we were running for our lives. We were going as fast as we possibly could with me behind my assistants. I felt that the trunk of the elephant was very close to me and that this was the last moment of my life. Actually it was the fear of death that made it possible for us to clear the jungle. My feet stumbled and I fell into the grassland, rolling over several times. For a few seconds I lay there dazed. It was sheer luck that we managed to clear the jungle, thus escaping the elephant, which was reluctant to come out into the open.  A few more steps and it could have crushed me very easily. Somehow, we were safe.

Later I asked Jeewaka why he had not fired the gun for making a loud noise when the elephant was chasing us, and he said that he had tried to but it did not work. On inspecting it I found that the trigger had jammed. We had done the whole operation relying on a malfunctioning gun.

After about a week, we revisited Minneriya and spotted the elephant. The wounds were recovering well.  Although it has given me a lifelong memory of the fear of death it was, nevertheless, a very satisfying incident.