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Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Madatugama villagers say Wildlife Dept. blind to marauding elephants
Madatugama villagers say Wildlife Dept. blind to marauding elephants
January 7, 2014
By Siri Kumarasinghe – Kekirawa
Residents of the Madatugama, Bakmeegaha Ulpatha village, who are affected by the wild elephant menace and suffering due to non-availability of electricity, lament that the Department of Wildlife had meted out step-motherly treatment to them.
There are nearly 30 families without electricity in the village. A herd of wild elephants had recently invaded the village and destroyed some houses. The village is situated about 3 Km from Madatugama. About 175 families are supplied with drinking water from the Bakmeegaha Ulpatha (spring). Their main livelihood is cultivation.
Raju, a resident of Madatugama, explaining his predicament, due to wild elephant attack, said:-
"When we were sleeping with our children, I heard a noise and a little later a wall collapsed inwards and tiles fell from the roof. We raised cries and the elephant fled. It returned after about 20 minutes and toppled the other wall too. I lit a cracker and threw it at the elephant which fled but returned at about 01.00 a.m. and broke down the wall of the drawing room and it crashed on the TV. My children, through fear, passed urine. Though we have been residing in this village for 23 years, we have no electricity facilities."
Chandani Senevirathne, Raju's wife said:-
Wild elephants attacked several other houses in our village. I was on pins thinking the wall might fall on my children. I got so scared that day and now I don't fall asleep. If I hear a small noise, my sleep is disturbed. I am frightened to keep a bottle lamp lit in the bedroom thinking it will topple and cause a worse disaster with the house catching fire. One elephant flung bricks into the house. If we had lights, the elephants would be scared to come closer to houses."
B.M. Swarnalatha of Bakmeegaha Ulpatha said:-
"We don't appeal to the government to feed us, nor are we asking for jobs. We only request the authorities to allow us to attend to our cultivation work peacefully. Officials of the Wild Life Department say there no locations, where the elephants can by chased to. Our cultivations are destroyed by wild elephants. We have started cultivation after obtaining loans from banks. How are we to pay back the loans we took? We'll have to take poison. Wild Life Department officials sometimes give us a special type of cracker (Ali Wedi) to chase away wild elephants. They give only two crackers. That is not at all sufficient. Elephants have destroyed our plantain cultivation and snake gourd loft."
Tillekarathna of this village said:-
"When an election is close by, candidates visit our villages and promise us various facilities, including electricity. But they forget us after they win the elections. The village needs only 5 or 6 posts to provide electricity. We have no way of going out in an emergency or to take a patient to a hospital at night through fear of wild elephants. The town is close by. The Electricity Board can fix an additional transformer and supply us with power."
Madatugama villagers say Wildlife Dept. blind to marauding elephants
January 7, 2014
By Siri Kumarasinghe – Kekirawa
Residents of the Madatugama, Bakmeegaha Ulpatha village, who are affected by the wild elephant menace and suffering due to non-availability of electricity, lament that the Department of Wildlife had meted out step-motherly treatment to them.
There are nearly 30 families without electricity in the village. A herd of wild elephants had recently invaded the village and destroyed some houses. The village is situated about 3 Km from Madatugama. About 175 families are supplied with drinking water from the Bakmeegaha Ulpatha (spring). Their main livelihood is cultivation.
Raju, a resident of Madatugama, explaining his predicament, due to wild elephant attack, said:-
"When we were sleeping with our children, I heard a noise and a little later a wall collapsed inwards and tiles fell from the roof. We raised cries and the elephant fled. It returned after about 20 minutes and toppled the other wall too. I lit a cracker and threw it at the elephant which fled but returned at about 01.00 a.m. and broke down the wall of the drawing room and it crashed on the TV. My children, through fear, passed urine. Though we have been residing in this village for 23 years, we have no electricity facilities."
Chandani Senevirathne, Raju's wife said:-
Wild elephants attacked several other houses in our village. I was on pins thinking the wall might fall on my children. I got so scared that day and now I don't fall asleep. If I hear a small noise, my sleep is disturbed. I am frightened to keep a bottle lamp lit in the bedroom thinking it will topple and cause a worse disaster with the house catching fire. One elephant flung bricks into the house. If we had lights, the elephants would be scared to come closer to houses."
B.M. Swarnalatha of Bakmeegaha Ulpatha said:-
"We don't appeal to the government to feed us, nor are we asking for jobs. We only request the authorities to allow us to attend to our cultivation work peacefully. Officials of the Wild Life Department say there no locations, where the elephants can by chased to. Our cultivations are destroyed by wild elephants. We have started cultivation after obtaining loans from banks. How are we to pay back the loans we took? We'll have to take poison. Wild Life Department officials sometimes give us a special type of cracker (Ali Wedi) to chase away wild elephants. They give only two crackers. That is not at all sufficient. Elephants have destroyed our plantain cultivation and snake gourd loft."
Tillekarathna of this village said:-
"When an election is close by, candidates visit our villages and promise us various facilities, including electricity. But they forget us after they win the elections. The village needs only 5 or 6 posts to provide electricity. We have no way of going out in an emergency or to take a patient to a hospital at night through fear of wild elephants. The town is close by. The Electricity Board can fix an additional transformer and supply us with power."
