The Elephant in the Room: Addressing Animal Rights for Captive Sri Lankan Elephants

By: Laura Stickney

Buddhist religious leaders and festival-goers have recently become the subject of worldwide criticism after photos of Tikiri, an emaciated Sri Lankan performance elephant, surfaced during the Kandy Esala Perahera festival.[1] The annual festival held in Kandy, Sri Lanka celebrates the country’s possession of the prized tooth relic of Lord Buddha by featuring dancers, fireworks, and lavishly decorated elephants.[2] Tikiri was one of sixty elephants that performed during this year’s festival, in which the elephants were draped in intricate costumes and rode for several kilometers a day for ten consecutive days amidst claustrophobic crowds and deafening fireworks.[3] The images showed seventy-year-old Tikiri collapsed on the ground, with bones protruding from her hips and ribs.[4] Many were shocked to see the elephant’s state when not adorned in her costume that covered her teary eyes from the bright lights, her alarmingly slim body, and her shackled ankles.[5] Sadly, the emaciation seen in Tikiri is not uncommon amongst performing elephants, as they are often given inadequate food and water during performance seasons to avoid urination and defecation in front of crowds.[6] The widely circulated photos have caught the attention of Western-based organizations, most notably People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and has left many wondering, “how could this happen?”

            Issues regarding the ethical treatment and management of endangered Sri Lankan elephants (elephas maximus maximus) is not a new topic on the small island country.[7] While the poaching and illegal tusk harvesting of elephants is often discussed around the world, the issues faced by the Sri Lankan elephants are lesser known. It is important to note that the Sri Lankan subspecies of elephants is unique compared to others, as the Sri Lankan elephant does not grow the traditionally coveted tusks of the well-known African elephant–likely a result of islandic genetic bottlenecking.[8] This has saved the Sri Lankan elephants from being primary targets in the vicious ivory market, but they have instead fallen victim to human confrontation and capture, severe deforestation, and religious symbolism that dates back centuries.[9] This blog post will focus primarily on human capture and religious symbolism.

Buddhists, who make up 70% of the island’s population, believe that elephants are the religious servants of Buddha and that Buddha was once incarnated as an elephant.[10] Following these beliefs, the Sri Lankan Buddhists have captured many of their native elephants for participation in religious ceremonies and celebrations, as personal symbols of wealth, and as a source of country pride.[11] The population of Sri Lankan elephants has dropped roughly 65% since the turn of the 19th century, despite efforts by Sri Lankan conservation groups.[12]

            This rapid loss of the cultural and ecological icon of Sri Lanka has sparked motivation in the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) to make legislative and administrative changes in the enforcement mechanisms of elephant protection.[13] DWC enacted the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance that, amongst other things, offered the protection of wild Sri Lankan elephants.[14] In particular, it banned the capture of Sri Lankan elephants from the wild and provided for a three-year prison sentence for the killing of a wild elephant.[15] Experts concur that this was one of the most effective and consistently enforced legal efforts by DWC.[16] The most notable enforcement of the regulation was the conviction of high-profile Buddhist monk, Uduwe Dhammaloka, for the possession of a captured wild baby elephant that he claims was abandoned at his temple without proper DWC permitting.[17] This prosecution strongly reiterated the Sri Lankan government’s stance that elephants are regarded as state property and need to be licensed with DWC for domestic possession, even among Buddhist leaders.[18]

            While the enforcement of laws against the unpermitted possession and capture of wild Sri Lankan elephants is a step in the right direction, experts also agree that government enforcement cannot stop there. A trickier problem to solve is how to regulate the treatment of permitted captured[19] elephants, like Tikiri. In 2016, the Sri Lankan government passed a series of laws that banned the use of elephants younger than five years old for physical labor and set exercise and dietary standards for captively held elephants.[20] Despite the passing of these laws, many remain skeptical of how consistently the Sri Lankan government enforces the restrictions.[21] Conservationists worry that “it may not be easy to enforce the laws due to a lack of will and the fear that prosecuting offenders would expose political connections,” as captive elephants are occasionally used as gifts of diplomatic gratitude.[22] Others point to the ironic inconsistency between the keepers complying with the elephant treatment laws while also having the elephant undergo the “breaking” process – the training process that a newly captured wild elephant must go through to become comfortable around people, which often involves starvation and physical abuse.[23]

            The shocking photos of Tikiri further instilled this cynicism and serve as a solemn reminder that Sri Lankan enforcement of laws ensuring the proper care of captively held elephants has a long way to go. Following Tikiri’s death, an online petition collected over 27,000 signatures calling for stricter legal measures to protect future performance elephants during the festival, as well as the investigation and prosecution of Tikiri’s death.[24] Despite claiming that an investigation would take place, the Sri Lankan government has not reported any investigative measures or charges for the mistreatment of Tikiri and other similarly situated elephants.[25] Until the legislative and enforcement efforts for performance elephants reaches the level of protection offered for wild elephants, the fate of these captive giants remains uneasy.

[1] See generally Alexander Kacala, Heartbreaking Photos of Emaciated Elephant Have People Calling for Action, Today (Aug. 15, 2019), https://www.today.com/news/photos-emaciated-elephant-sri-lanka-spur-calls-action-t160853.

[2] Andrea Smith, Animal Rights Campaigners Urge Tourists to Boycott Elephant Attractions in Sri Lanka, The Lonely Planet (Aug. 16, 2019).

[3] Id.

[4] Kacala, supra note 1.

[5] Id.

[6] Prasadini Nanayakkara, Saving the Sri Lankan Elephant, Earth Island Journal (July 5, 2016), http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/articles/entry/saving_the_sri_lankan_elephant/.

[7] Nanayakkara, supra note 4.

[8] See Shermin de Silva, Q&A: Elephant Conservation Challenges in Sri Lanka—A Conversation with Shermin de Silva, Nat. Geo. Soc. Newsroom (July 16, 2014), https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2014/07/16/qa-elephant-conservation-challenges-in-sri-lanka-a-conversation-with-shermin-de-silva/.

[9] Nanalyakkara, supra note 4.

[10] Sri Lanka Cracks Down on Owners of Elephants Taken from Wild, VOA News (Nov. 1, 2016, 1:45 PM), https://www.voanews.com/east-asia/sri-lanka-cracks-down-owners-elephants-taken-wild [hereinafter Sri Lanka Cracks Down].

[11] Id.

[12] Id.

[13] Maheesha Mudugamuwa, Elephants in Captivity – Government to Pass New Laws, The Sunday Morning (Sept. 17, 2018), http://www.themorning.lk/elephants-in-captivity-govt-to-pass-new-laws/.

[14] Nanalyakkara, supra note 4.

[15] See Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance, DWC § 58A.

[16] Sri Lanka Cracks Down, supra note 10.

[17] Buddhist monk arrested for possessing an elephant without licence in Sri Lanka, Eturbo News (March 11, 2016), https://www.eturbonews.com/136645/buddhist-monk-arrested-possessing-elephant-without-licence-sri-l/.

[18] Id.

[19] No elephants are “domesticated animals”, they are captured animals held in domestic possession because they do not naturally obey human comand. Nanayakkara, supra note 10.

[20] Sri Lanka Bans Use of Young Elephants for Work, AFP News (Nov. 23, 2016), https://www.yahoo.com/news/sri-lanka-bans-young-elephants-142131354--finance.html.

[21] See generally Laws to Provide Better Conditions for Captive Elephants, Biodiversity Sri Lanka (Feb. 9, 2017), https://biodiversitysrilanka.org/2017/02/09/laws-to-provide-better-conditions-for-captive-elephants/.

[22] Id.

[23] ‘Sacred’ Elephants Abused During Sri Lankan Buddhist Festival, The Observers (Aug. 29, 2016), https://observers.france24.com/en/20160829-elephants-abused-sri-lanka-festival.

[24] Kacala, supra note 1; Citizens for Elephant Welfare, Justice for Tikiri https://www.thepetitionsite.com/944/770/528/help-tikiiri-the-elephant-in-sri-lanka/.

[25] Seven Sri Lanka elephants dead from suspected poisoning, BBC News (Sept. 30, 2019), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-49878447.

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