We spent the morning traveling the Northwest Region around Puttalam, where we met HEC victims and learned about slash and burn cultivation. The disapproval of Department of Wildlife Conservation runs deep, with unfinished fencing projects and poor planning across the country.
Driving around, you are surrounded by white columns of smoke that hold up the sky, as farmers prepare the dry land for a new round of crops after their previous plots have been over-worked and depleted. Combined with population boom, land is being slashed down and burned faster the natural forests can replenish themselves. Both the poor farmers and the land are trapped in this vicious cycle of retreat and poverty. At the same time elephants are losing the habitats. With less and less wild to roam, elephants begin to raid home gardens and knock down houses in search of rive paddy. This is one of the worst areas for HEC.
There was the farmer who survived after being trampled while biking home late at night. There was the glossy eyed man in white who’s wife was killed by a rogue elephant. There was the mother of two who’s mud house was partially destroyed by a hungry elephant. There was the man who after helping a fallen elephant out of an agro-well, got run down as the spooked animal ran away. Then the man who was shot in the legs, bones shattered, by a trap gun after fleeing from a charging elephant. The list goes on and on.
As we traveled around to these rural homes, we were impressed by the great hospitality. When there isn’t much to offer, a cup of tea or a king coconut goes a long way.
Tags: documentary, production, sri lanka
СПАСИБО ОЧЕНЬ КЛАСНО!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!…
We spent the morning traveling the Northwest Region around Puttalam, where we met HEC victims and learned about slash and burn cultivation…..