The Hindu : Kerala News : Living with jumbo handicaps

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 06, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Living with jumbo handicaps

By R.K. Radhakrishnan

Sama at the orphanage. — Photo: R.K. Radhakrishnan

KEGALLA (SRI LANKA), OCT. 5. It was eight years ago that Sama was brought to the Pinnewala elephant orphanage here. The cow-elephant had lost a leg when it stepped on a landmine in the northern jungles. It was about five then.

Today, the orphanage veterinarian, Chandana Rajapaksa, is worried. ``Because of her increasing weight and because of the unnatural position of her legs [and efforts] to balance herself, [the alignment of] her joints and her spine has changed,'' he says.

Dr. Rajapaksa says that Sama, now 14, is otherwise healthy. It is not in pain because of the leg. But the vet is not sure how much damage its internal organs have suffered. ``The bones are becoming deformed. There is pressure on her internal organs. There is nothing much we can do,'' he says.

An international effort was mounted to help Sama overcome her handicap. A team comprising an orthopaedist, a veterinarian, an elephant expert, a physiotherapist and an elephant trainer tried to get it used to the idea of an artificial limb. (http://www.luckysama.de). They failed three times. ``Sama was not happy with the trans-tibial prosthesis,'' Dr. Rajapaksa says. When veterinarians tried to fit a prosthetic appliance soon after the accident, it rejected the artificial support and preferred to limp along.

The mahouts say Sama (meaning eternal peace) is only barely tolerated in the herd of over 60 elephants. More often than not, it is pushed around. But the maimed elephant has come to accept its plight, they add.

A blind tusker

In another corner of the orphanage is a tusker, 59-year-old Raja. Only 7 per cent of Sri Lanka's male elephants are tuskers, says Laxman Natarajah, wildlife enthusiast and photographer.

Raja is here because it is blind — lost its eyesight when a stray bullet pierced its eyes. It needs the help of two mahouts to move around. It is left alone by the rest of the herd, mainly because a mahout is always by its side. ``He should easily live for another 20 years. He has no other problems,'' says the vet.

The orphanage is situated northwest of Kegalla, between Colombo and Kandy. It was started in 1975 by the Department of Wildlife on a 10-hectare coconut grove on the banks of the Maha Oya river. It was primarily designed to afford care and protection to baby elephants found in the jungle without their mothers.

``A majority are there because they strayed into agricultural land or have been injured,'' says the Director of Wildlife, Dayananda Kariyawasam.

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