‘Bhanu’ back in chains after roaming free for years

‘Bhanu’ chained before being taken away from the Ridiyagama Safari Park 

Text and pix by P.D. De Silva

The tusker named ‘Bhanu,’ which had been roaming free at the Ridiyagama Safari Park in Hambanthota since September 2019, was returned to the Ruhunu Kataragama Devalaya on Tuesday (14) in keeping with a recent court order.

Officials from the Department of Wildlife took Bhanu into their custody in October 2016 after the custodians of the Ruhunu Kataragama Devalaya were unable to produce acceptable proof to be in possession of the animal. The tusker was handed over to the custody of the Department of National Zoological Gardens and was kept at the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage until it was transferred to the Ridiyagama Safari Park.

It is said that Bhanu was gifted to the Ruhunu Kataragama Maha Devalaya by Shashindra Rajapaksa, a former Basnayake Nilame of the sacred shrine.

Environmentalists and environmental organisations are up in arms and have taken steps to challenge the gazette notification and subsequent court order that had ordered the return of 15 elephants to those said to have been keeping them illegally.

It is heart breaking to imagine the suffering Bhanu and the other 14 elephants will have to undergo as they would have to be corralled once again be in chains for the rest of their lives.

The Director General of the Department of National Zoological Gardens is known to have resigned from her post in protest of the return of the elephants.