The Udawalawe National Park Report, lost corridors and future initiatives.

The four longtime corridors that link Udawalawe thru Dahaiyagala reserve to the hill country, as well as thru Lunugamvehera National Park toward Yala are now closed off for all but the most bold bull elephants. Udawalawe’s herds now nearly starve during the dry season; calf mortality being extremely high. The final nail in the coffin for the Dahaiyagala corridor was pounded home by President Rajapaksa, after his land giveaway to locals during his highly controversial visit there this year.

This is what happens when elephants are trapped behind fences and trenches in Yala and Udawalawe- sick elephants! (See attached photos) If a thriving tourism sector is desired - who in the world would want to travel to Sri Lanka to witness starving, emaciated, if not dying elephants?

Saving or rewilding the corridors?

We spoke with many local experts about buying or leasing lands to restore one or more corridors. We studied satellite images, flew our drone over miles of corridor areas and drove our 4x4 1200 KMs over a 12 day period. The prognosis is dire. We determined that we would need to acquire up to 1000 acres to widen corridors to the extent that the most tentative herds would be willing to traverse thru any corridor. It would be politically impossible to complete, without a heroic gesture by this or a future president. It will require a firm commitment and implementation of the elephant management Plan that was submitted to the government 3 - 4 years ago. This President is swiftly going in the opposite direction, as evidenced by his decision to dig trenches around these parks. It's pure ignorance and willful disregard for wildlife and a thriving tourism sector.

Action Plan

What to do? A huge public relations campaign, including appearances by celebrities and famous conservationists is our best hope to preserve what is left of elephant populations. The southern parks are effectively broken now. The elephant population will shrink to fit the carrying capacity of forage within the park boundaries. The Great Gathering and northern areas offer hope, but this President has broken The Gathering with implementation of the Moragahakanda dam and irrigation project. We must restore The Gathering, and we will be meeting with very soon with experts for more social media interviews and discussion of strategies.

Returning to strategies to save the Southern elephants, if not All Sri Lanka's elephants...we need huge international attention. Being connected with musical performers, SavingGanesh.org is considering the production of a "save the elephants" concert and event, however, Covid currently prohibits such gatherings. Thus, we may instead organize and cover expenses for world personalities like Jane Goodall to come to Sri Lanka and bring media attention. SavingGanesh.org produces annual elephant awareness events in America and has a broad network. By generating sufficient funds, we will be enabled to search for and organize one or more celebrities to take up this cause. We are equipped to produce a documentary for worldwide online distribution. This strategy would present an excellent opportunity to change the course of habitat destruction and elephant deaths. We all know the power of celebrities and social media.

We can use celebrity power to force the implementation of the country wide elephant management plan. Here's a recent report by Dr Pruthu: http://www.ccrsl.org/userobjects/2602_927_2015-Fernando-Management.pdf

Prithiviraj Fernando is a formidable expert on Sri Lankan elephants, but unfortunately, conservationists in Sri Lanka do not work together. When receiving funding, conservationists and scientists keep the funds for thier own individual pet projects. Obviously, past efforts are failing. There’s a lot of lip service being paid to what is necessary to save the elephants, but little action. SavingGanesh.org, with little overhead, and working with a volunteer crew (even the executive director is unpaid), has a proven track record to bring together diverse elements without regard for profit or acclaim. By hooking in celebrities with experts like Pruthu, Joyce Pool, Lek Chailert and Carol Buckley (SavingGanesh.org brought the latter two here in 2017/18), we will have the dynamism to create an interesting documentary.

Connections: Lek Chailert is great friends with Cher and Ellen DeGeneres, both of whom may be willing to come to Sri Lanka when Covid risk recedes. Dave Matthews is an elephant lover who has done work at Africa's Reteti Orphanage (where we have contacts). He may be willing to visit Sri Lanka and perform a concert.

Bottom lines: old conservation approaches are not working. We need creative, new approaches. Sending more funding to piecemeal projects, is merely a temporary band aide. Significant new funding is necessary to implement these strategies. One hopeful fundraising mechanism is the hot market of for NFTs (Blockchain Cryptocurrency). We are working with several NFT communities to raise the significant funds necessary to implement our paradigm shifting actions. Without bold actions, there is no hope for wild Asian elephants.