Born Free Foundation - Keep Wildlife in the Wild

At the end of January 2008, Born Free held a very successful symposium in Sri Lanka covering many issues relating to elephant conservation and welfare. It was well attended by the travel industry and included a presentation on the role of elephants in tourism by a senior leisure industry professional.

This was also an opportunity to highlight the case of Asokamala, the young elephant who was supposed to be sent to Armenia. Born Free sent our Senior Wildlife Consultant, Ian Redmond, to Armenia the previous week to see the condition of the elephants already at the Yerevan Zoo, and he returned with several concerns about the facilities and the difficulties raised by the climate (temperatures usually fall below freezing on over 100 days of the year!). Although they have recently received a female from even worse conditions in Russia, the zoo management still expressed an intention to source more animals, even suggesting that they might set up a breeding herd.

Meanwhile the court case in Sri Lanka is ongoing, with a hearing at the end of February extending the injunction against the transfer until a further hearing in June. For the moment it seems that Asokamala will be staying in Sri Lanka, and reports are that she has been returned to her herd at Pinnewala – having been separated from them in preparation for the transfer – so that she once again has daily contact with her mother and the rest of her (mostly adopted) family. However the practice of sending elephants from Pinnewala to zoos like Yerevan has not been prevented, so it is important that the case continues in the hope of setting a precedent to prevent other unfortunate animals facing such a fate in the future.

Enquiries about the welfare of the male elephants at Pinnewala, which currently spend long period chained up during musth (a regular condition like being ‘on heat’), confirmed that there are plans to construct enclosures which allow them free movement during these times. However the timescale for this is still unsure, being tied to expansion plans for the zoo and with the land for the facility still not even fully secured, and we are not aware of any alternative management strategies being used in the interim.

More information about Born Free’s concerns about the Pinnewala Elephant Orphanage.