Holocaust of elephants by the British Raj in Sri Lanka
Senaka Weeraratna
The issues raised by the London-based World Animal Protection (WAP) and like organisations towards stopping tourists from traveling to Sri Lanka because of elephant rides and shows in Sri Lanka to the exclusion of compassion towards other animals in far more vulnerable situations in Sri Lanka such as animals incarcerated in Zoos under horrific conditions, animal sacrifice in places of worship, ritual slaughter of animals by untrained individuals without supervision, battery hens in intensive farming conditions, illegal killing of endangered animals and opposition to Buddhist Temples being used as animal sanctuaries which goes against the fundamental tenets of Buddhism of showing love and compassion to all living beings, raises fundamental questions about the bona fides of those who engage in campaigns of selective compassion.
As much as the Human Rights Discourse has become a huge joke not for any other reason but for the fact that the biggest proponents of Human Rights in the international arena are the very countries that have blood of the innocents on their hands in waging aggressive wars according to their whim and fancy and which cannot be sanctioned by the UN Charter, the subject of animal rights may also encounter cynicism and skepticism if the proponents use animal rights to pursue hidden agendas against countries that have a pre-dominance of Eastern Dharmic religions.
The British public and British NGOs are the least eligible to raise a moral cry over the plight of elephants in Sri Lanka given the close involvement of their forbears and the British Colonial Government in the deliberate and planned extermination of the wild elephants in Sri Lanka during the colonial era. The evidence for the destruction of the elephant wealth in Sri Lanka by the British is overwhelming. It is available in public records of the colonial government and the unrepentant memoirs of the perpetrators of such mindless killings of innocent animals.
One Account says as follows:
” Until 1830, elephants were so plentiful (in Ceylon) that their destruction was encouraged by the (British Colonial) government, and rewards were paid for any that was killed. In the first half of the 19th century, forests in the montane zone were cleared large-scale for the planting of coffee, and afterwards tea. The elephant population in the mountains was extirpated.
During the British rule, many bull elephants were killed by trophy hunters. One of the army majors is credited with having shot over 1,500 elephants, and two others are reputed to have shot half that number each. Many other so-called sportsmen have shot about 250-300 animals during this time. Between 1829 and 1855 alone, more than 6,000 elephants were captured and shot.”
No apology nor any compensation has been paid by any of the Western colonial Governments e.g. Portugal, Netherlands and Britain to Sri Lanka for the destruction of both man – made as well as the natural foundations of life in Sri Lanka over a period of nearly 450 years ( 1505 – 1948).
Accountability for crimes cannot be made into a one way street. It will bring both International Law and United Nations into disrepute and give rise to credibility issues.
The vastness of the British Empire including the jungles of Sri Lanka was made into a hunting ground for Big Game on the part of members of British military families. They hunted not only for pleasure but also as part of their training for battle and display of their manhood and masculinity. It was the Fauna and Flora of Sri Lanka that paid a huge price for this training which brought out a new genre – hunting narratives.
The material appended below collected from the Internet reveals British complicity in the liquidation of a good part of Sri Lanka’s natural forests in the Kandyan areas and the priceless elephant wealth which was until then greatly protected by Sri Lanka’s Animal Friendly Cultural Heritage.
It is time that Sri Lanka makes an unequivocal demand for financial compensation from Britain for atrocities committed on Sri Lanka’s elephant population during the colonial era, among other just claims, for the purpose of setting up a sizeable monetary Fund to address elephant related issues in the country.
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