The Great Elephant Gathering of Minneriya losing its shine
The “Great Elephant Gathering” of Minneriya is a world famous tourist attraction named as one of the 10 greatest wildlife wonders of the world by Lonely Planet.
“There is no other such sight among the 13 Asian elephant range States and it has been a magnet for tourists, foreign and domestic, in their thousands,” Sumith Pilapitiya, Wildlife Researcher.
During the dry season in MaySeptember, elephants gather on the dried out lakebed of the Minneriya reservoir to eat fresh grass. During the peak in September, there are about 400.
The numbers go down with the onset of the North-East monsoons in late October. Along with water releases from the cascade reservoir system, the Minneriya reservoir gets filled and the lakebed with its grasses are submerged from December to April. But when water is again released from the reservoir for agriculture in May, the grasslands re-emerge, bring back the elephants.
This unique phenomenon has taken place in Minneriya for decades. It is a myth that elephants return to the reservoir during dry season for water. They come for the fresh grass which is higher in protein than mature grass. Water is an added bonus.
When food and water are plentiful, elephants, being social animals, congregate in large herds, giving rise to the ‘Great Elephant Gathering’ in
August/September. The abundance of resources also triggers their natural biological behaviours.
“Having plentiful resources stimulates the sexual hormones of elephants and it is common to observe females in estrus and males in musth,” Dr Pilapitiya said. The unusual sight of mating elephants and its associated male-male competition, musth posturing, and other interesting elephant behavioral characteristics can be observed at this time.
Since the construction of the Moragahakanda Reservoir in 2018, however, the Minneriya Reservoir has been full during the dry season due to unseasonal water releases that Irrigation authorities claim are for agricultural reasons. Consequently, there has been a significant reduction in the elephant population.
“The project has a virtually irreversible adverse impact on the elephant gathering unless urgent remedial action is taken,” Dr Pilapitiya said.
There is about a 95% reduction of elephants of the gathering between 2017 and 2021. Apart from tourism revenue being lost, there appeared to be a greater than six-fold increase in the human-elephant conflict (HEC) in areas around Minneriya National Park. The rise in HEC was confirmed by locals and park safari drivers.