The search for the lost King of Uda Walawe

A very enthusiastic and interested audience attended Srilal Miththapala and his son Dimitri’s presentation of an overview of the Uda Walawe National Park and the story of one of its iconic elephants

A very enthusiastic and interested audience attended Srilal Miththapala and his son Dimitri’s presentation of an overview of the Uda Walawe National Park and the story of one of its iconic elephants, at the Hotel School Auditorium on July 11, 2013 evening.

Starting off the proceedings, Srilal gave a quick overview of the Uda Walave National Park, where he has been observing and studying elephants for over 15 years now. He went on to talk about tusks in Sri Lankan elephants, where unlike in the African species (where both males and females have tusks), in the Asian species, only the males have tusks. He showed many slides of different tuskers and highlighted some of the iconic tuskers in each of the wildlife parks, including ONJ (One tusk John) of Minneriya, the mischievous Gamunu of Yala, and the star of the story, Walawe Raja of Uda Walawe.

He spoke at length about “Walawe Raja,” the big tusker who has regularly visited the Uda Walawe National Park for more than 10 years. He comes into the park during the period of June to October when he is usually in musth, the male reproductive cycle. Raja had been the “star” of the BBC film, the last tusker. He was not sighted in 2009, and once again when he did not appear in the park in 2010, Srilal and his son Dimitri, decided to mount a small field operation to try to find out what may have happened to this elephant.

Drumming up support from various individuals and corporate entities, the father and son duo, supported by their friends in Uda Walawe – Nishantha, Asanka, and Kapila started to search along the peripheral villages, surrounding the Uda Walawe National Park. The funding for the project was forthcoming from an avid elephant enthusiast living abroad who to this day prefers to stay anonymous.

Dimitri then took up the story where he explained the challenges and difficulties that had to be faced. It was not easy, since no one knew exactly where Raja vanished to, when he goes out of the park. The plan was to sensitize the villagers in the surrounding areas and get feedback as to whether Raja had been sighted. Armed with a GPS, Photo Identity Kit, and hotline provided by the courtesy of Dialog, the team traveled right around the eastern, northern and western periphery of the park.

Dimitri went on to explain that as the information started flowing in, there was an overload due to many villagers imagining seeing Raja and calling in. Very soon, the team was beginning to get calls from all over, which was difficult to assess and manage. Each lead had to be followed up to carefully analyze and sift away the false alarms. It was painstaking and tiring work. Grueling field trips had to be undertaken on a regular basis through very difficult terrain to verify information.
However, the IT and social media platform built up by Dimitri created great interest on an on-going basis with more than 400 followers checking the progress on the blog created at a new web site called “find raja.com.” A regular weekend newspaper column helped cover the print media. There was great support and enthusiasm by people from all walks of life, as well as offers of help from volunteers and some of Srilal’s corporate sector friends.

At the end, with funds running out, and no clear evidence of Raja dead or alive, the team has to reluctantly call off the search leaving Raja MIAPD, (Missing In Action, Presumed Dead).

Srilal summed up the interesting talk, saying that such iconic animals such as Raja need to be studied and tracked, as their charismatic presence helps create interesting and newsworthy stories. While certainly, in-depth research is required on generalized studies, some form of tracking and follow up of these “characters” will help draw attention and create awareness about the need to protect our wildlife. He gave a few examples of Gamunu the elephant at Yala; Rambo the elephant at Uda Walawe; Ivan the one-eyed leopard in Yala; Sumedha, possibly the newly-crowned king of Uda Walawe; and Edward the wild boar at Uda Walawe. He was of the opinion that the park authorities or interested individuals must mount a regular check about these charismatic individuals.

He said that no one in the Wildlife Department, nor any other organization had noticed that Raja had been missing for two years in succession, until he had brought this to the attention of everyone. Even after this, his efforts to get the authorities to do something drew a blank, which prompted the father and son to embark on this project.

In conclusion, he said that he was sad that they had not been able to find Raja, but at the end of the day he was happy that, given all the constraints, they had been able to “get out of their armchairs” and at least tried.

About the author

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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