Elephants- on the road and at Giritale National Park

From Trincomalee we took the A6 to Habarana, a distance of 88 km. I was surprised to notice electrified fences along the way, notably near Kantale Wewa. Realising they were there to keep jumbos off the highway I paid close attention to the scrubby bush, hoping that the cloudy day would bring at least one jumbo out early to feed. I was not disappointed! 

This lone jumbo paid little attention to us as he pulled up his grassy lunch and carefully popped it into his mouth. Elephants need to eat about 150kg of plants such as grass, fruit, leaves and the softer shoots of some trees each day so eating is a serious business for them. Clicking cameras are not worth the energy needed to be distracted from the eating ritual!

Sri Lankan elephant - elephas maximus maximus

This elephant, with his small ears fringed with depigmentation and curved spine, is a great illustration of the Sri Lankan elephant, one of three subspecies of the Asian elephant. Other body parts of the Sri Lankan elephant that often have depigmentation of the skin are the ears, trunk and face. I have also seen one with bands around his feet.

The road from Trincomalee to Habarana runs along side the railway line as far as Agbopura. We never have the time to travel by train or bus nowadays and, to be truthful, we do like to enjoy the relative comfort and flexibility of a vehicle. Those tourists keen to travel local style and to see elephants in the wild could come by train either on the Trincomalee line to Gal Oya and then take a tuk tuk to Minneriya or Kaudalla. There is also a station at Minneriya on the Batticaloa line. Here's one of the train timetable links.
http://colombofort.com/train.schedule.htm

Kaudalla, Minneriya and Giritale National Parks

The last time I saw elephants in the wild was late December in a flooded Kaudalla National Park. September is the dry season so the herds of elephants that roam between these three National Parks, connected by an ''Elephant Corridor" were concentrated in the one with the most water, Giritale.

Road into Giritale National Park

Happy that it was a rather dull, cloudy, moist day which would bring the elephants out of the bush early to feed, we had a delicious lunch at Hasthi Restaurant, Habarana,  hired a jeep and drove to Giritale National Park. There we bought a day visit permit - costs Rs 60 for local people, Rs 1945 for foreign visitors plus service charges and taxes of Rs 1900. The jeep hire this time was Rs6000, up from Rs5000 less than two years ago. As we were far earlier than the usual afternoon safari time of 3pm, the obligatory guide was waiting to get into our jeep. It turned out that his guiding was little more than a slight wave of the hand to confirm the jeep driver's intended direction for which we tipped him Rs500 at the end of the safari.

Elephants at Giritale, Sri Lanka

Our jeep driver, Channa, knew the area well and also had a great eye for spotting many birds - blue tailed bee eaters, bulbuls, ibis, egrets, herons, lapwings - and before too long he had found a grassy area surrounded by quite thick bushes. As we arrived this mother and baby emerged from an almost hidden gap in the bush and immediately began eating the green grass.

Mother and Baby elephant, Giritale

More elephants emerged until a herd of about twenty was occupying the open space.

Sri Lankan elephants at Giritale National Park

Elephants at Giritale National Park, Sri Lanka

We were the last of six jeeps in a line and, as the elephants came closer and began to pass very near the front jeeps, Channa decided to turn the jeep around so that we could move out of their way, should they decide to come this way.

As he was manoeuvring the jeep some of the elephants moved through the bush to another area.

One elephant decided to take a closer look at us.

We moved further away to the side of a river and were rewarded by the herd coming through to cross the river and return to the bush.

One young elephant clearly wanted to play longer in the water!

It was soon joined by some other babies who enjoyed a brief splash time while their mothers and aunties crossed to the other side and began to disappear into the trees.

Once again, one of the herd gave us a closer look

When the first baby into the water was the only one remaining in it, some aunties came back and gently nudged it with their trunks. Time to move on, darling!

Elephants, Giritale National Park

Obediently baby complied!

As we left we saw another herd coming through into the grassy area. Suddenly, one of them moved with surprising speed to follow our jeep. Channa moved carefully, trying not to rev the engine, hoping that the elephant would remain calm. After a few metres it turned its attention to a jeep behind us. Lucky that Channa had turned us around!

Fisher Eagle, Giritale

As we moved away, Channa spotted this Fisher Eagle hidden in a tree overlooking the river.

We then moved on to another area in the Park and came across a very numerous herd grazing near a lake.

Elephants, Giritale

This large group, perhaps more than one herd, had many babies.

Elephants, Sri Lanka

Sue

After two hours during which time we counted around 150 elephants we decided to leave them in peace and made our way back to the road.

Unfortunately for them, we met 59 jeeps hurtling down the road on their way in.

Elephant ride

The next day I met this jumbo plodding down a hard road, laden with humans and chained.