Conflict to Coexistence

    I had the opportunity last week, to take part in the Conflict to Coexistence program that is run through MEF, with the help of one of the staff members. I was 'off the grid' for a week, living in the village of Weragala with no electricity, internet, etc. Sleeping some nights in a bungalow, one in a tree house, and eating meals with and prepared by a wonderful family across the road. The Conflict to Coexistence program was started to help reduce conflicts between humans and elephants in areas like Weragala. This village, along with a number of others, is located between 4 National Parks, in an 'elephant corridor,' which is the migration path for many wild elephants. It is very dry, sparse, and filled with crops that elephants find appealing when they come looking for food and water. Every year a number of elephants are killed in these conflicts by farmers trying to protect their crops, as well as a number of humans being killed as they get in the way of elephants. Often times crops are left completely trampled, and houses and livelihoods are destroyed. The purpose of the C2C program is to promote effective farming techniques to improve crop security (planting crops around the outside that elephants don't like), as well as trying to study the path the elephants take with the hopes of shifting it slightly. The program is run by Podi, a staff member at MEF, who holds this issue quite close to his heart and is also very close with the village being affected.
   After a slightly scattered briefing from our coordinators here on Monday morning, Lilly and I set off in the C2C truck with Podi, off to grab Steve and Jade, who were joining us for the week as well, from the Rambukkana train station.
A VERY bumpy, uneven, car-sick style of ride is what we were in for. Poor Lilly got quite nauseous but luckily managed to fall asleep, until...we were catapulted (no exaggeration) forward and on top of each other when the truck came to a slamming stop. For a person? a cow? another car? No. A palm leaf. Still unsure as to why. Onward we went to our lunch stop, which was a P&S on the side of the road near Sigiryia, serving us a couple of rotties, ice coffees and ice creams. Next, we stopped at an amazing Food City in Dambulla to stock up on 5L bottles of water, biscuits, Nutella, and sodas. The journey to the village after that was quite short, up a dirt road and we arrived! To be greeted by 4 stray dogs, very excited to see us.
    Podi opened up the bungalow that hadn't been visited for quite a few weeks and showed us in. Lilly and I grabbed one room, Steve and Jade in another and Podi in the other. We set our stuff down, made our beds and set off on the walk with Podi around the village and the jungle we were about to be calling home for the next week. Through the bushes behind the bungalow, we came to a what's left of a lake that had a few families bathing in and washing their clothes and up we climbed to a temple that we could see from down in the field, overlooking the village.
Beautiful 360 views, and a massive Buddha sitting majestically on top of the hill. After a long walk about, Podi stopped us in at the house where we were going to be eating all of our meals, introduced us to the family, and back we walked to our house. Throughout the whole week we were placed under a 6PM (nightfall) curfew, except going for dinner, as that is when it can become dangerous with elephants roaming around. Day one was quite relaxed, though one of the hottest days we had all witnessed yet. We finished off the evening sitting outside reading, writing, listening to the 7-9PM generator (!!!) roar and watching quite the display of lightening, which we were told was coming from a storm a couple of hours away that likely wouldn't reach us, unfortunately.
    We also learned in our first day, by observing ourselves and talking to Podi, that Weragala was under one of the worst droughts it has ever seen. Normally, dry season is from July-September and rainy season begins in October, when the farmers plant miles of rice paddy fields (the biggest crop there). They hadn't had that this year. There had been no rain, lakes were practically dried up, wells were empty, everything was brown, and crunched under your feet. It was quite sad to see, as the only crops the farmers really had were small gardens in their backyards that they could manage to water themselves.Usually, as part of this program, the group of us would be there helping the farmers plant and harvest crops, but with no water, that has been unable to happen.
    My first night's sleep was terrible. Assume from here on out that I didn't sleep the whole week I thought going into the depths of the jungle would bring peaceful, dead silent nights, but I was very wrong. First I was awoken by the sounds of a party, then something in our house fell (not sure how) creating a huge crashing noise, then the 5AM hour-long temple blessing that can be heard throughout the whole village, and finally, the sounds of shoveling and sweeping on the road outside, that with my eyes closed felt like I was back home with snow...minus the heat.
    Day 2 brought more exploring, as well as an adventure out to see a wild elephant Podi had been told about. We were swept up in the truck Tuesday afternoon to go to a lake about 30km away. After making a few stops on the way, picking up more people that left our truck feeling very stuffed, we were on our way.

Elephant track

Jumping out of the truck once we made it as close as the truck could get to our 'final destination,' I felt quite nervous. We were walking towards a lake in a huge, vast, dead space of land where elephants pass through all the time, knowing wild elephants were currently around. The instructions we had been given if you are faced with an elephant were, RUN!.....RUN....run. Oh, and start peeling off clothes as it distracts them. And, RUN. We got to the lake quite quickly, which was beautiful, but depressing at the same time. It was yet another lake left with very low water lines, which we could point out based on the exposed roots of trees that were normally supposed to be under water. There were also dead fish carcasses everywhere. We saw THE wild elephant right away. He was a few hundred yards away, wading in the low water, not really moving. We were told it was believed something was wrong with it, though no one really knew or could tell. Podi called the wildlife board after awhile, which we waited for. They showed up in a truck, 2 of them hopped into a fisherman's row boat and paddles out to the elephant. As we could see them getting closer, the elephant we thought was unable to move, whipped around, trunk in the air and let out a huge trumpet sound. When the men returned back to shore, we learned, through translation, that it looked like the elephant had been involved in a fight with a Tusker (male elephant with tusks), and had a wound on it's front right leg and back left leg. As the elephant was in the water, there was nothing they could do about it then, but wait for him to walk out to land. The next day, Podi let us know that the elephant eventually came out, the wildlife board was there to tranquilize him and they treated his two wounds.
   Our night in the tree house! What an amazing experience. Wednesday afternoon the 4 of us, plus Podi, 6 farmers and 3 shotguns, set out further into the jungle where we would be spending the night. Farmers setup and sleep in tree houses scattered all around the jungle, typically to protect their crops. They will hold onto shot guns (loaded with firecrackers, not bullets, for the most part) and set them off if they hear elephants below them stomping through their crops. A tactic used to scare away the elephants. As there are no crops this year, the farmers were taking us out and joining us, simply so we could have the experience. Though there was no common language between us, the farmers were some of the friendliest people I have met yet. Very sweet, kind and putting in so much effort to make sure we could experience this evening to the fullest.
   

Inside my tree house!

We first arrived to the 'cooking hut,' which was located on a tall mound of mud. A few tall sticks, some wood slats, a tin cover and more ants than I've ever seen at once, was where we would be having dinner. The farmers immediately started sweeping up, boiling water, fixing the roof and made us tea. Shortly after that, a group of us - Steve, Jade, Lilly, Podi, one farmer (with a gun) and me - walked out to the tree house where Steve and Jade would be sleeping, so they could drop off there stuff before it got dark and all they'd have a chance to do was run from dinner and up to bed. It was there that the farmer we were with spotted 2 wild elephants slightly off in the distance. We battled through tall grass, spikey bushes and trees to get a little closer to the male and female elephant that were drinking water by a pond a ways away. Podi called one of the other farmers that was still back at the cooking hut to tell them to come meet us, more importantly with a second gun (for security) so we could get even closer. It was terrifying but incredible to see, and so close. At one point Podi made a point of saying 'This is not like on a safari. We aren't in a truck, and we are closer than you'd ever get.' Realizing how close we were (a few meters, hidden behind bushes) became even more obvious when we noticed all the men hike up their sarongs, passed their knees, as to prepare to run...fast. Luckily, those precautions were never necessary and after some watching, we quietly headed back for dinner, as a storm was brewing above our heads.
    Dinner was curried potatoes and bread, made by the farmers. We sat around the fire, huddled together, doing the best we could to talk with each other, with the help of Podi's translating. The farmers were FASCINATED with our cameras.
They kept wanting to take pictures and then look at them right away. Smiling, make faces, making fun of each other and we were all in hysterics pretty quickly. They even wanted to see some of our pictures of our families and where we come from. Once we had finished up dinner, Lilly and I were escorted to our tree house, in a line, led by farmer #1 with his gun and followed by Podi. I was the first up (bad idea as I'm no fan of heights), and was terrified climbing up the rickety ladder. Luckily it was pitch black so I had no bearing of how high I really was. We were instructed to NOT come down until morning, no lights after midnight and not a sound, as elephants will attack the tree if they think you're up it. Lilly and I made ourselves comfortable, laying out a sleeping bag, our makeshift pillows, and quickly we could have been seen sitting in a wood slat, tarpped roof tree house in the middle of a jungle, headlamps on, giddy about the experience we were having, eating Nutella and biscuits. Pretty perfect. The next morning all it took was opening our eyes to see a beautiful sunrise over the whole jungle. We climbed down out of our tree house after gathering our things, met everyone back at the cooking hut and set off to head back 'home' to sleep the rest of the morning.

Sunrise

    Thursday was low key as all we did was sleep, clean up the bungalow and jump in the truck to head back to MEF in our 5-hours drive. The week was something I could have never dreamed of and an experience I will never forget. The positivity, happiness and genuine hospitality that everyone we met in the village of Weragala had, was inspiring. They've been without so much this year, but you would not have known it. They are always smiling, always wanting to help and so alert to making sure you are happy. The kids we passed on our many walks and explorations were eager to say hello, goodbye and wave at you until you could no longer see them. Which reminds me! We spent a wonderful Wednesday morning playing with and teaching a bunch of children from the village who were on a break from school because of New Year.

We all sort of congregated at a house, started off by practicing some English and ended with playing games of hide and seek and cricket....which the boys were excited, but more so amused, to teach me! Have to say, I wasn't too shabby.

 
I arrived back to MEF having missed Pooja quite a lot and got the feeling from Roshan on Friday morning, that the two of them had missed me too. Apparently they had been difficult to deal with all week in my absence, and come Friday, Roshan was the happiest and easiest mahout of them all. Spent a wonderful afternoon giving Pooja a very long scrub in the river. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_v8DS6L6NVA&feature=youtu.be

XOXO Nicky