The orphans of the savannahs
 By Dr. Dharmasena Kuruppunayeke. (M.D.)



Udawalawe national Park, Sri Lanka
A hurried visit to the Elephant Orphanage

Most mothers have perished in the hands poachers or angry farmers.

Click here to see pics--->
They wail and tromp and throng together in a thrill of panic. When one breaks away from the tight shoal, perhaps because of an unsteady foothold or by tripping over a pebble, the rest panic intuitively and quickly join the errant youngster. The quiver of the crowd betrays the yearning for leadership and guidance. A community of animals atavistically attuned to the leadership of a guiding matriarch is lost in the savannahs without proper and sagacious directions. The caretaker humans desperately try acting as surrogate to their natural mothers and communes in vain. The timorous orphans are relentlessly on the alert for a sense of confidence and security.

The majestic and powerful blaring trumpet calls of these giants of the savannahs have transmogrified into wails of despair and lurking danger. The trademark of elephant: staid lumber that sedates the onlookers into a hypnotic trance is now a panic ridden, directionless stampede kicking up blinding and eddying clouds of dust.

The thirty or so elephants children of varying ages is the equivalent of a daycare center without the prospect of ever going home to their doting mothers at the end of day. The ponderous, plastic feeding bottles are no substitute for warm soft udders of their late mothers. Yet, the babies throng at the stile to the corral where soon the caretakers will dispense their milk rations. Lactogen: a milk powder dissolved in drinking water filled into plastic cans with long swan neck spouts serve in place of the mothers' succulent nipples. The orphans are sent two at a time: one older and bigger and a much younger baby as if to make sure the tiny babies feel that they are secure at all times in the company of a larger and older companion. The younger, smaller elephant scurries in a scrambling gait showing impatience and anxiety as if he would miss his milk if he were to be late even by a second. The devoted feeders make sure every elephant gets his due share of Lactogen. The baby runs up to the feeding post with its trunk curled up to clear the gaping mouth and the lolling tongue. Just as the milk pours out of the elephantine feeding bottles the milk disappears in gurgling gulps into a throat that easily could swallow the entire bottle if inadvertently slips out. The baby so strikes a drinking posture that doesn't end as the feeding can empties; sometimes it takes several nudges from the feeders to break the feeding freeze and make way for the next. The hesitant, unhappy youngster with an insatiate appetite parleys the orders to step aside and returns to the open space for those who were already fed. One feints to make way to the exit and stealthily turns around while the herder is looking away to steal a place in the feeding queue. The feeders are all familiar with elephant antics and quickly spot the offender and admonishes with a mock flagging with a flail soft sprig. After a few sideways rocking of the head and neck together in protest the youngster yields.

This is only a brief moment of a heart wrenching saga of wearied men's attempt to reconcile humanity's own scourge on nature. Not a moment too soon!

Dr. S.M.Dharmasena Kuruppunayake (M.D.)