November volunteers gets a first hand experience of human elephant conflict

Alicia Chadwick
Volunteer Coordinator
SLWCS

Monday, November 25th 2019

Morning

Team 1: Hella, Laura, Oswin, Robert, Helen and Celine – Orange tree mapping of the newly distributed trees was conducted around the village of Pussellayaya.

Afternoon

All Volunteers: Elephant observation was conducted at Weheragala and Madupitiya today. No elephants were observed.

Tuesday, November 26th 2019

Morning

Team 1: Hella, Laura, Oswin, Robert, Helen, Marnie and Celine – Volunteers went to Karu forest to reset the sand traps. There were footprints of leopard, deer, and elephants.

Afternoon

All Volunteers: We all went to Naminigama for elephant observations. No elephants were observed. However, there were many birds, and we watched the farmers sew their fields with rice.

Wednesday, November 27th 2019

Morning

Team 1: Hella, Laura, Oswin, Robert, Helen, Marnie and Celine – In the morning the team visited a farmer whose crops were destroyed by an elephant to document it. The group then conducted a pugmark survey at Meda Ela and came across jungle cat prints. Soon after the group received a phone call that a villager's house had been broken by an elephant. The team immediately left to visit the damage house and and document it.

Afternoon

Team 1: Celine, Helen and Robert visited the national park with Alicia. It was an incredible observation where over 60 elephants surrounded our jeep and grazed peacefully.

Team 2: Hella, Laura and Oswin went to Meda Kanda with Chathuranga. No elephants were observed.

Thursday, November 28th 2019

Morning

Team 1: Hella, Laura, Oswin, Robert, Helen and Celine – For the morning activity, we planted 12 orange trees in the butterfly garden. It was so great to see the volunteers enjoying making their physical mark on the butterfly conservation project.

Afternoon

All Volunteers: Went to the Weheragala tank for elephant observations. We saw two sub-adult males grazing in the Tree Hut Forest. We were all delighted.

Friday, November 29th 2019

Morning

Team 1: Hella, Laura, Oswin, Robert, Helen and Celine – This morning was spent doing fence monitoring and dung analysis along the Guruwelayaya area. It began to rain a lot and get torrential so we finished a little early. We then went to the concert at the Pussellayaya public school and gave some donations to the students.

Afternoon

All Volunteers Observation in Weheragala tank in the evening. No elephants were observed.

For information on the SLWCS Volunteer Program please visit: https://www.slwcs.org/volunteer

SLWCS Staff and Volunteer shirts sponsored by elephantea

Big, rumbling thanks to our Corporate Partners for their kind support and to everyone who has donated and supported our wildlife conservation efforts!