“The incident in the latest video is unfortunately very common. Between processions, elephants are parked in small spaces where tourists can look at them and take pictures with them. Often, elephants can’t stand being in such close proximity with other elephants and try to flee. To force them to move, trainers use spears or ankus [a type of metal hook] to poke their legs.



I’ve treated many elephants after they were used in this festival. Some have serious wounds on their legs, which can get infected, and, in the worst cases, this leads to abscesses, pododermatitis [an inflammation of the nails and the pads under elephants’ feet], and arthritis.







Photos taken by a veterinarian colleague of our Observer’s. They show injuries inflicted on the animals’ feet.



"Greed often wins"

The trainers behave in this manner due to a lack of experience, and due to ignorance about the consequences of their actions. For example, I’ve seen several elephants who were sent to the festival despite being in their musth phase [Editor’s Note: musth is a periodic hormonal surge that makes male elephants aggressive].

It’s very dangerous, because they behave unpredictably during this phase. But greed often wins out [Editor’s Note: an elephant can bring in between 25,000 and 50,000 Sri Lankan rupees – which equals between 150 and 300 euros – per festival day to their owners, who are usually Buddhist temples or tourism companies].



Several NGOs have complained about this abuse, leading the government to take some measures; for example they have asked organisers to be careful about the weight of the battery-powered electric lamps attached to the elephants’ clothing. It’s really heavy for them. However, we don’t know if these requests were really followed.





"The festival is a powerful political tool"





This festival showcases the importance of Sri Lankan Buddhism, whose epicentre is Kady province. Buddhism is also seen as a rampart against terrorism [Editor’s Note: it is notably a rampart against Hinduism, which is the primary religion of the Tamil people]. Keeping these traditions alive means conserving a powerful political tool, and so animal rights fall by the wayside.

This year, for the first time, the Kandy Esala Perahera festival’s organisers admitted that they didn’t have enough elephants, and estimated that they would need to tame about 200 more to meet the festival’s needs in the future. According to our Observer, Lahiru (not her real name), a veterinarian in Colombo, the animals are treated very badly.Each year, tourists and local NGOs express shock at how elephants are treated during the festivals, notably the fact that they have to walk for kilometres with so much weight attached to them. A popular Facebook page has called on elephant lovers to give the festival bad reviews on Tripadvisor Our Observer believes that the reason that the situation hasn’t improved much is also political:Sri Lankan authorities estimate than about 200 elephants are killed in the country every year, mainly by farmers trying to protect their crops. In 1900, there were about 12,000 elephants in Sri Lanka; today, there are only about 7,000 left.