Introducing Project Dodam

Starting August 15, Asian Elephant Support is launching PROJECT DODAM and joining with the Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society (SLWCS) to support their efforts to mitigate human-elephant conflict using a unique method to help protect both the people and elephants of Sri Lanka.

THE ISSUE:
The Sri Lankan people and elephants often compete to exist using the same habitat and resources. One elephant dies every day as a result of intensifying human-elephant conflict across the nation. Many of these deaths are because elephants are entering farmlands and raiding crops the community is growing to sustain themselves. The farmers fear for their lives and livelihoods when elephants move in and destroy all the crops the community needs to feed themselves and make a living. Communities feel they need to take action to stop the raid or prevent them from coming back, sometimes resulting in the death of an elephant.

THE SOLUTION:
Researched by the SLWCS, the organization has developed a way for farmers to provide for themselves and their families by growing citrus trees that elephants dislike and that mask the scent of other crops that are grown inside of the orchards. This variety of orange tree has a bitter rind and in fact is not the traditional orange color we associate with the fruit. It's GREEN! There are two components to making this plan work. The first is the immediate installation of electric fences surrounding farmlands to protect them and the people in the community. The second is working to grow the crops to the point where they can act as the permanent, natural barrier and allow for the removal of the electric fence, which can then be moved to a new location and used in the establishment of another orchard for a different community. It will take approximately three years for the trees to mature to the point where the fences can be removed.

Asian Elephant Support has already funded the portion required for the electrical fences. Now we need YOUR help for the rest! Join us in supporting SLWCS by raising the remaining $12,750 needed to complete this project and help the elephants and people of Sri Lanka! These funds will go to purchasing:

• Orange tree saplings

• Water pipes

• Water tanks

• Pump systems

• Miscellaneous planting equipment and tools

HOW TO SUPPORT:

PROJECT DODAM APPAREL - Available for a limited time!
From August 15th through September 17th, click here and purchase your exclusive Project Dodam gear! 100% of the proceeds from the sales will directly benefit Project Dodam. Choose from a variety of styles and colors and wear your support for the protection of Sri Lankan elephants!

Prices include FREE SHIPPING within the U.S.!

DONATE TO PROJECT DODAM
Is your closet already full? No worries. You can donate to Project Dodam via PayPal or credit card on our secure website. Your donations add up and will make this project a success. Here is how your generosity can be put to work:

$5 buys 4 orange trees (5,000 trees needed)

$10 buys 10 feet of water line (2,000 feet needed)

$40 buys the tools needed to plant and maintain the trees (25 sets needed)

$150 buys a water tank needed to store rain water in remote communities (5 tanks needed)

$275 buys a water pump to operate the system (10 pumps needed)

TO DONATE, CLICK HERE!
Make your donation by October 15th and help us to reach our goal to raise $12,750!
 

Additionally, now through October 15th, all donations made on Venmo will go directly to Project Dodam. So you can help save Sri Lankan elephants from your phone!

Join us in efforts to mitigate human-elephant conflict and help the people and elephants of Sri Lanka. Thank you!

EleFriendly Bus in Sri Lanka Repairs Funded By AES

Elephants & education go trunk-in-hand - A lot of the work that Asian Elephant Support does surrounds education. From additional training for veterinarians, skill building for mahouts, community awareness programs and funding for safe transportation for children to attend school, AES wants to put the knowledge and resources in the hands of our partners and communities living with elephants in Asia!

In one of our most recently funded projects, AES committed to providing money to the Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society to help service and repair the EleFriendly Bus in Sri Lanka. In 2016, AES was part of a group that helped purchase this bus that made it possible for children to be transported to their school along a route frequented by wild elephants.

Since the start of this bus service to nine villages, which is also used by community members when the children are in class, Human-Elephant Conflict has been reduced by 90% along the corridors it travels. The funding of repairs came just in time for the start of the new school session in January and just in time for us to celebrate the International Day of Education, on January 24th!

Thank you to all of our partners in the field for their continuing work to care for and conserve Asian elephants and support the communities living amongst them. If you would like to support our partners throughout Asia, consider becoming an Monthly Donor. Click here to learn how!

SRI LANKAN SCHOOL BOOK DONATION PROGRAM

For several years Asian Elephant Support has helped fund the Biodiversity & Elephant Conservation Trust’s educational program reaching hundreds of schools each year. This one day program gives Sri Lankan middle school students a well delivered program covering the history of the Sri Lankan people with Asian elephants, the biology of the Asian elephant, and calming the natural fears of elephants that sometimes raid crops or destroy homes searching for food. Better ways of living peacefully in elephant country and the importance of this majestic, if powerful, species to the Sri Lankan culture are all discussed. 

This year, with school on hold or on line in Sri Lanka from COVID-19, the Trust has turned its efforts to fund raising for their School Book Donation Program. This program delivers school books, sufficient for one year, and a school bag, to children of families whose parent has been killed by a wild elephant. The moment a parent is killed, the family faces severe economic problems and most times the children cannot go to school. This program is in its 12th year. 341 children have benefited from this project so far. At present their list has 85 children who receive the benefits of this project. Four of the children who have been supported over the years have entered universities and two have already graduated. This is a very creditable achievement.
 
The total cost per child, per year, for books and school bag is $35. If you would like to help a child with a year’s schooling, funds can be wired via Western Union with the following information:
Biodiversity & Elephant Conservation Trust
Sampath Bank Plc, No. 316, Kotte Road, Rajagiriya, Sri Lanka
Account. No .112260973706
Swift code: BSAMLKLX 
Bank Code: 7278
Branch Code: 122

Sri Lankan Children Connect with Orphaned Elephants

July 2020 - AES would like to take you to Sri Lanka, where for over 4 years, we have worked closely with Dr. B. Vijitha Perera supporting the care of orphaned elephants at Elephant Transit Home (“At Athuru Sevana”) in Udawalawe National Park. Elephant Transit Home’s goal is to rehabilitate orphaned elephants and release them back into the wild at the age when they can care for themselves. In a country with approximately 6,000 wild elephants, Elephant Transit Home has taken in hundreds calves in the last 25 years. This is a challenging task, as these young elephants often come with serious nutritional deficiencies, disease and a host of other issues.

Previously, our funding for ETH has gone to monitoring the youngsters while in human care and then upon release. But our most recent partnership is centered on community partnership, specifically with school children.
 

Orphaned for a variety of reasons, as we see in almost every elephant range territory, Human Elephant Conflict is a major factor for these calves. In an effort to gain community support, Dr. Perera has written and distributed two books, which Asian Elephant Support is proud to have sponsored. One of which, A Cry for Milk - written in Sinhala and translated to English - talks about the reasons why calves are separated from their mothers, the extraordinary care given when these elephants come to Elephant Transit Home and the success stories this group has seen after the release of juveniles back into the wild and the joy of them finding new herds and having babies of their own.

Dr. Vijitha Perera with ETH staff

& Government Officials receiving the books

Sharing these stories with school children, cultivating a sense of concern for orphaned calves and understanding for lengths taken to save these babies, was the purpose behind A Cry for Milk. Sixty pages of information and photos from Elephant Transit Home’s amazing work, fills this book. Asian Elephant Support is so thankful for the opportunity to fund the effort to develop greater bonds between the next generation, both human and elephant. We hope you, our supporters, enjoy some of the photos from this wonderful book!

SLWCS Report : AES Travel Grant to Attend IEF 2019

The SLWCS gave three presentations at the recent IEF symposium garnering the Society international recognition for its innovative and pioneering efforts integrating social enterprise, responsible travel, field research, conservation and sustainable development concepts to create a highly successful model for sustainable community based conservation in Sri Lanka.

Read the SLWCS Report

Field Report from Chase LaDue

Last year, for the first time AES decided to help fund a field researcher for a 9 month project in Sri Lanka “Musth Variation among Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus): Applications for Conservation and Management”. Chase LaDue is a Fulbright Scholar Researcher, and not only did AES consider this an important project, so did the International Elephant Foundation (IEF) and National Geographic. This is the first in a series of Field Reports following Chase’s experience in Sri Lanka at Rajarata University in the Faculty of Applied Sciences.

January Update from Chase LaDue:

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A special moment: Kevin & Chase : Kevin approaches our vehicle and just watches us for a bit. Wasgamuwa National Park, 21 January 2019. Photo Chase Ladue

We have begun data collection at Wasgamuwa National Park, Sri Lanka, including recording behavior,acoustics, and collecting fecal samples. While not popular among international tourists, Wasgamuwa is full of elephants, especially during the rainy season that lasts for a few more months. During our first ten days in the field, we photographed and catalogued 27 adult male elephants. We distinguish males by using differences in the elephants’ natural appearances, such as depigmentation patterns, ear shapes, and tail hair lengths. Unlike in other countries, we can’t use differences in tusk lengths for this purpose; due to historical poaching of male elephants for their ivory, only five to ten percent of male elephants in Sri Lanka have tusks. As such, Sri Lankan tuskers are highly valued by local people, but these elephants can be subject to poaching themselves. With generous funds from Asian Elephant Support, we have been able to hire a vehicle and park ranger to accompany us in the field, extendingthe time we can collect data among the elephants.

Even though Sri Lanka has the highest concentration of Asian elephants in the world, that also means that incidents of human–elephant conflict (HEC) are common, with expanding farmlands extending to the borders of protected areas. Additionally, the cessation of the recent civil war that displaced many local people has attracted these people back to their agricultural plots, exacerbating the problem of HEC. Indeed, many of the male elephants we follow in Wasgamuwa are riddled with bullet wounds, evidence of frequent crop-raiding events. Males in musth are especially prone to crop-raiding, as they engage in riskier behavior and are attracted to nutritious crops. Our project seeks to better understand social and environmental factors that lead to variation in musth among male elephants; this understanding will inform HEC mitigation strategies as solutions are sought for sustainable human–elephant coexistence.

Thank you, Asian Elephant Support, for enthusiastically backing our work. In a few months, we will leave Wasgamuwa to follow the elephants to other national parks with the transition to the dry season. In the meantime, we will continue documenting the behavioral and physiological dynamics present among the male elephants of Wasgamuwa.

February Update from Chase LaDue:

We’ve had 1,187 elephant sightings over 186 different sighting events in Wasgamuwa National Park. With all of these sightings, we’ve identified 48 different adult male elephants (often called bulls; females are called cows). We’ve seen 24 of these bulls multiple times.

Here is a snippet from his latest blog:

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Collecting (elephant) fecal samples in the field, donning a shirt from another of our generous supporters, Asian Elephant Support. Photo: Wendy Kiso.

Over our 17 days this past trip, we’ve observed elephants we haven’t spotted since December, and of course we’ve seen new elephants too. But our sightings have decreased in frequency compared to when we started. During our visit to Nimal’s village, we were told that elephants from the park would soon be crossing the fence to start raiding the paddy fields. And based also on the increased amount firecrackers we’ve been hearing at night, the lack of elephants in the park indicates that this has happened. Nimal says this is temporary, and that this movement happens about the same time every year in the rainy season, and it will only last two weeks. I’m hopeful that our trip back to Wasgamuwa next week will be more fruitful in terms of elephant sightings. With the end of the rainy season looming, the elephants will begin to move out of the forests to find more food, making them easier for us to see. We’re also excited at the prospects of seeing other species, including leopards (I’m convinced I caught a fleeting glimpse of one running through the forest during an early morning drive last week) and sloth bears.

Today (February 4) is National Day in Sri Lanka, the equivalent to Independence Day in the US. It’s pouring outside as I write this update, and I’ll spend the rest of the day answering emails and attending to matters I’ve had the excuse to ignore while in elephant land without WiFi. Tomorrow at the university I’ll begin processing the fecal samples we collected before heading to Colombo on Wednesday.

So, if you’ve ever wondered what a Fulbright scholar studying musth in Sri Lanka actually does, you can read more details on his blog.

Or check AES website for updates regarding Chase’s research & other AES-sponsored projects. There’ll be some catching up to do on our website for Chase’s project but AES wants you to see & be part of the experience that you have helped to support.

Sri Lanka 2018

The elephants at Pinnewala coming in for the evening

President Linda Reifschneider headed to Sri Lanka on December 11, 2017, to visit some of the people and projects we have been funding in that lovely island nation.

Jayantha Jaywardene and his associate, Sudath, joined Linda for dinner in Colombo the evening of the 13th.  Jayantha is the driving force behind the Schools Awareness Program which has been teaching school age children in Sri Lanka about elephant conservation and human-elephant conflict solutions.  Asian Elephant Support has been delighted to help Jayantha keep this program running for class after class of school aged children.

Then Linda headed to the Udawalawe National Park area.  First stop was to visit Dr. Vijitha Perera, head veterinarian at The Elephant Transit Home (ETH).  The ETH is an orphanage for young calves who are still dependent on their mothers’ milk.  They receive 7 feedings every 24-hour period.  Their days are spent in open forested areas and secure stalls at night.  Linda had the opportunity to see a feeding at the quiet time of 10 p.m.  The following day she returned to view the first public morning feeding and then headed into Udawalawe National Park to see lots of elephants, including many who were growing up there after being weaned and old enough to leave the orphanage.

AES has been delighted to help Dr. Perera with funds to attend a vet workshop and look forward to working with him in the future.

Linda, Dr. Perera, and staff share lunch

Visiting Sri Lanka would not be complete without a stop at Yala National Park and especially a moment at the 2004 Tsunami memorial.  Linda was there a few years after the tsunami and this beautiful stretch of beach makes remembering the horrific loss of life during that event even more dramatic.

An overnight stay at The Grand Hotel in Nuwara Eliya is always a very special treat and right on the way to Kandy.  A visit to the Veterinary School at the University of Peradeniya provided a good opportunity to get updated on Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society’s EleVet program, which is another effort AES has helped fund.  And then, a special moment: the opportunity to visit the Kandy Temple elephants.  Usually one only gets to see these elephants when they are on parade during a festival.  So, to see their ‘digs’ and meet the mahouts who care for them daily was quite a privilege!  Thanks to Dr.  Ashoka Dangolla, professor at the University of Peradeniya, for facilitating this opportunity.

Of course, one does not go to Kandy without visiting Pinnewala, the largest and first elephant sanctuary in Sri Lanka.  Linda was given a very good tour and visited with their elephants and staff.  From there she joined Dr. Dangolla at The Millennium Elephant Sanctuary, down the road from Pinnewala, to visit with the volunteers helping care for those elephants.

Linda with a bull in Kandy

Finally, on to Wasgamuwa: Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Sanctuary’s (SLWCS)
headquarters and where Linda spent two weeks on her first visit to the island volunteering in Ravi Corea’s Earthwatch project.  Ravi is the founder and president of SLWCS and offers excellent volunteer opportunities for those wanting to learn more about Asian elephant conservation, and all the challenges facing these magnificent creatures, on a firsthand basis.

Back to Colombo for Christmas Day, the anticipated manicure, pedicure, and massage didn’t happen: that staff was off for the Christmas festival!

While AES is a totally voluntary nonprofit and we cover all our own travel expenses, YOU, our supporters, are the ones who make it possible for us to fund these various beneficial projects and needs.  Thank you for helping us help elephants!

An elephant on the side of the road at Udawalawe National Park

Sri Lanka School Awareness Program Photos

The following are a few photos of classrooms jam packed with students attending the School Awareness Programs in Sri Lanka.  Mr. Jayantha Jayewardene, who runs the program, tells us the current program is still in session and will be concluded soon.  It is through teaching school children the importance of keeping both elephants and people safe that we hope to better mitigate the human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka.  We look forward to hearing more about this past semester!

School Awareness Program a Success

The Biodiversity Elephant Conservation Trust (BECT) in Sri Lanka is a non-profit NGO that focuses on studying elephants and teaching school children about human-elephant conflict (HEC).  AES has been funding their school programs for a few years now and we are happy to hear from Mr. Jayantha Jayewardene that their 2016 curriculum was a success.  45 schools participated in their School Awareness Programs over 6 districts throughout the island.  An average of 151 pupils and 9 teachers were in attendance.  The programs are specifically located in rural areas so that children can be made aware of the difficulties surrounding HEC and how they can help their communities mitigate the issues of coexisting with elephants.  Elephant biology, ecology, and religious symbolism are all taught in the half day course at each school.  Being able to empower the next generation with knowledge and respect for elephants will certainly make sure that their survival in the limited space within Sri Lanka is guaranteed.  We at AES look forward to our continued work with Mr. Jayewardene and the BECT.  

Elephant Transit Home

Celebrating 20 years returning elephants to the wild

Over the past two decades the ETH has been able to release 99 elephant orphans.  They are released in groups of 4-8 after rehabilitation and integration into the EHT herd.  From those 99 releases only 7 have died and 15 babies have been born.  So how does an elephant become an orphan?  Unfortunately the answer lies with human-elephant conflict.  Mothers are killed for crop raiding or are killed by accident in electrocutions and train accidents.  Almost all of the orphans arrive in very poor condition with ailments ranging from dehydration to severe parasitic infestation and even congenital defects.  That being said there have been many losses over the years.   

Mother receiving fluids with calf at her side

Group play activities

When the orphans first arrive they are immediately given medical treatment to assess their condition.  They are given milk and whatever other nutrition they require to be brought back to homeostasis.  From there the new herd members are introduced to the already established herd and begin to participate in activities with the other kiddos such as swimming, grazing, and mud wallowing.     What is very special about this program is it is the only one of its kind with years of data to track their successes in an Asian elephant range country.  The number of elephants in Sri Lanka is just over 6,000, with about 250 living in human care.   The EHT has seen and experienced so much over the years and will continue to work to save orphan elephants.  

Calves receiving milk

Post release

We at AES look forward to the continued success of the EHT and are very thankful to have the opportunity to support such a dedicated group of people.  Thank you, Dr. B. Vijitha Perera, Suhada Jayawardena, Neshma Kumudini, Tharaka Prasad, Department of Wildlife Conservation Sri Lanka, et. al. for the amazing work you are doing in Sri Lanka.  

Elefriendly Bus Update

The Elefriendly Bus in Sri Lanka is already up and running and changing the lives of humans and elephants in a village near Wasgamuwa National Park.  The first rides were given this past May 23rd and the route is now used daily by school children, farmers, pedestrians, and cyclists.  We are so happy that we could be a part of helping people coexist peacefully alongside elephants.  If you would like to learn more have a look at this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1kYzfCcgAc

School Awareness Program Update

Do you ever wonder if your donation actually makes a difference for elephants?
The answer to that question is very simple, YES!

In 2015, AES was able to donate $4000 to the Biodiversity and Elephant Conservation Trust’s Schools Awareness Program. This program helps educate children in 150 schools per year on the urgent need to conserve Sri Lanka’s wild elephant population. The following is a portion of a report from Jayantha Jayewardene, Managing Trustee of BECT.

Report on Schools Awareness Program 2015

The program has been designed with a view to giving students a better idea of the habits, ecology, social behavior, and basic biology of elephants, as well as presenting ways to minimize human-elephant conflicts and damage.

Progress of Program

In 2015 we carried out Schools Awareness Programs in 40 schools on behalf of the Asian Elephant Support.  These schools were from six (6) districts around the island. On an average there were 143 children and 7 teachers present at each of these programs. The principals of these schools have recorded their appreciation of our programs in a Record Book, which we maintain. A map showing the districts where the programs were carried out is at the end of this report.

The cost of carrying out this program per school is $ 100. This includes fees for lecturers, transport, accommodation, food and books for the school library. The program was carried out in 40 schools on behalf of Asian Elephant Support, whose grant was $ 4,000.

With the knowledge that is imparted to the children, they will have a better understanding and appreciation of the problem of human-elephant conflicts and know in greater detail about the natural and socio-cultural history of the elephants. This will reduce the negative attitude towards the elephant by the local communities, especially among the younger generations so that they can then be persuaded to take a more positive role in the conservation of elephants in the future.

Biodiversity & Elephant Conservation Trust

Sometimes funding takes a detour and finds yet another great destination!

Last year we agreed to fund participation at a symposium on elephants for the program coordinator at the Biodiversity & Elephant Conservation Trust.  Agreements were reached, funds were transferred….and then the symposium was cancelled.  Initially, it was expected that the meeting would be rescheduled.  But as the months passed with no further announcements, what to do with the funds?

The Biodiversity & Elephant Conservation Trust teaches awareness programs in poor rural schools.  The programs are carried out in areas where there are conflicts between humans and wild elephants, where both humans and elephants die and where there is much crop and property damage.

The school programs are very useful as they show the children the reasons for the need to conserve elephants and how this can be done.  These programs introduce the children to all aspects of the elephant including its physiology, biology, reproduction, home ranges, family life, etc.  The programs give examples of how they can implement effective elephant conservation strategies.

Naturally, helping to fund these outreach classes seemed a most logical use of the funds already received, but unable to be used toward their initial purpose.  From education one, which would have been a good use of our resources, the pictures show our funds are able to reach a much larger audience and a young audience….the next generation into whose hands the future of the Asian elephant will then be placed.

We appreciate our donors support that allows us to help make such education happen and if you think this is a good  use of funding, please consider a donation at this time.  Thank you.

Elephant Health and Management in Asia

This past year in 2014 one of our advisors, Heidi Riddle, co-authored a paper about the importance of identifying health issues in Asian elephants as seen by their veterinarians.  It is important to understand how difficult it is to find data on captive Asian elephant management throughout their range countries.  That being said the authors of this paper delved into what could potentially help both mahouts and their elephants receive the best care.  When both mahout and elephant are able to access medical care, that is a mahout is healthy and can provide for his charge, both individuals will thrive.  Finding solutions to this little known problem will certainly allow for a future with elephants to flourish.  Follow the link below to read the paper:   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4320845/

AES helps to further a veterinarian's education

Mr. Pham Van Thinh, a veterinarian from the Daklak Elephant Conservation Center in Vietnam, attended the "Asian Elephant Health, Reproduction and Breeding Management" course, which took place in Sri Lanka this summer. This training course was conducted by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine & Animal Science of the University of Peradeniya, in collaboration with the Royal Veterinary College of the University of London, UK, the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Chiang Mai University, Thailand, and the National Elephant Institute in Lampang, Thailand. The partner institutes were the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC), Sri Lanka, Department of National Zoological Gardens (DNZG), Sri Lanka, and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, USA.

The course focused on the management, nutrition, health, reproduction and breeding of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) with additional discussions on local and regional conservation issues. It had two components: a stand-alone distance learning (online-based) course of 6 weeks duration (12th May – 10th June 2014) that participants completed from their home countries; and a hands-on practical training course of one-week (7th – 11th July 2014) that was conducted on-site in Sri Lanka. The on-site training was conducted at the University of Peradeniya, Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage, Elephant Transit Home and Uda-Walawe National Park.

The course was attended by 22 participants from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Italy, Lao, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam. Asian Elephant Support was proud to sponsor Dr Van Tinh Pham from Vietnam, who works at the Dak Lak Elephant Conservation Center (ECC) in the central highland province of Dak Lak. The ECC aims to protect both wild and domestic elephants in the Dak Lak province, where elephant population numbers are critically low.

The central highlands region is Vietnam's primary elephant habitat. The Dak Lak Elephant Conservation Centre reported that the central highlands region had around 502 captive and more than 550 wild elephants in 1980, but all that are remain now are 49 captive elephants and five herds of wild elephants numbering 60-70 individuals. Shrinking forests, illegal poaching, shortage of food, improper breeding techniques, and overworking have been the cause of deaths of both captive and wild elephants. Experts estimate that the captive elephant population will disappear in 20-30 years if they do not reproduce. According to the Dak Lak ECC, the reproduction rate of captive elephants over the past 30 years has been only 0.6 % per year, and the rate has dropped even further now because of limited opportunity to breed. To boost the captive population there is now an emphasis on reproduction, which was a primary focus in the training course attended by Dr Van Tinh Pham.