@ Kalawewa a National Park that shamedly has not been gazetted and so a party ensures in its hallowed grounds, drink music and all the pollution left behind!

Ananda and Amila from the same village and still not made permanent employees!

Suranimala

TWO PAGE EXTRACT FROM MY JOURNAL FOR SEPTEMBER 4TH 2017

I spent some time with Sumith Pilapitiya, Javanah Fernando and their friend Wicky I believe his name is, for a while, explaining my theory to make this Park the star or the jewel in the crown of the DWC of Sri Lanka! (I have already blogged about what I would like to do with Kalawewa as a plan for 2025, when the highway will connect to Dambulla and one could come to this place for a fine dining experience while at the same time doing a night safari in the boat before going back to Colombo for the night!)

He was reporting the carnival atmosphere to the someone high up in Colombo, who had threatened his tracker with harm, when the tracker had ordered the crowds bathing in the Wewa, as if it was a popular bathing spot, out of the area immediately.

The locals and their friends, with cooking pots, and mats, like a camp site for the jolly set had brought food booze and God knows what else for an orgy inside the park. A good subject for a novel, called “Orgy in the Park” Kalawewa!

First there were the stream of fishermen, who both belong to the Fishermen’s Societies and those that don’t, who are fishing for supper. They streamed out as we were coming in, some sensing our cab was a DWC one. Then we saw the groups bathing in the water and relaxing and eating on mats inside women and men and kids too.

I was then informed that though Gamini Jayawickrema Perera jumped the proverbial gun for political expediency and declared the Park a National Park, it had still NOT been gazetted that left it in a state of limbo, legally, and the poaches and public had taken full advantage of this and have decided to treat this as their  public backyard park, and the under resourced staff have a problem of taking people to court and expecting swift justice to prevent recurrences.

Answer: Call for an immediate gazetting of Park Status and allocate basic resources to function, to designate their area, put up electric fencing, have responsible people with transport to ensure that the electric fence is always in operation, and begin the process of designating roads to be used in ALL weather and dry seasons and make a full plan for its proper inclusion as the foremost research institution in the Country for Tusker Research to prevent the demise of the Sri Lanka Tusker, which only has a maximum of a 30 year future.

I understood from Sumith that, there is enough funding and grants from the WB for the conservation of endangered species as long as a credible, and sustainable plan is put in place to achieve the conservation goals, that are prima facie what these grants will assist with. He said the problem is that a proper case has NOT even been put forward, by those people who are intellectually challenged to prepare and present this quite simple report with a request for funding.

We then decided to go further forward as there were no animals in this area, where there were too many humans making a noise that the elephants are unlike to come to bathe. After about half a km we stopped as there was a small herd of about 15 just on inside, while there were possibly others inside but not in our line of sight.

After some time and taking some photographs, we had a call from Ananda who had been told by a fisherman he knows where the herd was bathing, and asked us to come.

By that time the incident with the people in the park had been reported to the Warden and the Police and when we doubled back to the main Anuradhapura / Dambulla Road,  we passed the two policemen on a Motorbike and the Cab full of the park team with the Warden. We stopped and explained all the goings on, and Sumith too got out and spoke to the Warden a B Ramasinghe, who is a veteran of the DWC who was at Wilpattu Previously, who had been appointed here about 7 months ago.

This must have annoyed Ananda who was waiting patiently with his clients in their double cab at the road for us, and we then raced, followed them and after Kekirawa turned left on to the Kalawewa Road, and about 3 km from there, we turned in to a paved for only 50 meters road before we went along a village, into buffer zone areas that are cultivated with one crop in the year, and then over a mound into the Park. There were NO boundary signs or any fencing, so it is difficult to determine when the Park begins and the village ends.

We followed Ananda in the Campers Double Cab, until we reached the herd. They may have heard the vehicles coming close, as their hearing is very good especially downwind, so by the time we got there, bath time had finished and they rushed inside leaving a few stragglers around.

There were three in the water, playing or fighting, and having a good time, they did not seem bothered by our arrival and continued their antics. It then began to drizzle pretty heavily, just as we spotted a tusker in the undergrowth, perhaps part of the herd that had got back into the forest. Akila got down and under a tree, was able to photograph the animal while I waited in the cab.

Then after a while the lone elephant who was at the far end decided to join the water fight and moved in. Only then when he got close did we realize it was another tusker and Ananda said that was Suranimala. It was getting dark and so the photos were not as clear as I would have liked. We waited until Suranimala got out of the water at the same spot he got in, as he knows the lay of the land and where it is easy to get out! The other Tusker Walgamba II which was supposed to be the son of Walagamba I was also out of sight by now. Sumith’s keep came later possibly as due to delay with the warden and so had less time with Walagamba II.