A discussion on captive elephant welfare in Sri Lanka.
“Life in Chains in Paradise” webinar on our YouTube channel, 17th November 5:30pm SL 12:00 GMT
“Life in Chains in Paradise”
Sangita Iyer needs no introduction to those interested in captive elephant advocacy.
She is an Indian-born Canadian author, broadcast journalist, writer, biologist, and documentary filmmaker who is well known for her advocacy on wildlife conservation, especially focused on both captive and wild elephants.
Her controversial debut documentary film, Gods in Shackles, was based on the treatment of captive elephants in Kerala exposing the poor treatment of Asian elephants by religious institutions. Sangita is the first woman to have made a documentary about captive elephants in Kerala and the film was nominated at the United Nations General Assembly, featured at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), and has received many international film festival awards as well. The film took captive elephant industry of India by storm and the effects were even felt in Sri Lanka.
Her recently released book, Gods in Shackles - What Elephants Can Teach us About Empathy, Resilience and Freedom ranked the #1 Best Seller list on Amazon, since its release on February 8, 2022
Despite very strong attacks by India's captive elephant industry Sangita remains unmoved and keeps moving forward being an unstoppable force for the freedom of captive elephants and inspires and encourages female activists to come forward without fear.
She is the founding executive director and president of the Voice for Asian Elephants Society @vfaes_org which was founded in 2016 with an aim to protect wild and free captive elephants of India. Together, with her VFAES team, Sangita has done some remarkable work to manage the issues related to the human-elephant conflict in India, through the projects such as ‘Saving Elephants from Deadly Train Tracks’, ‘Safe Passage for Elephants in Tea Plantations of West Bengal’, ‘Champions to Feed Odisha Elephants’. Her organization has also created safe shared spaces for people and elephants, using science-based solutions through the ‘Flash the Lights to Save Elephants of India’ project. In addition to working on helping wild elephants, through VFAES, Sangita advocate to promote the quality of life of captive elephants in India.
Our first speaker is our own team member Panchali Panapitiya. She is a prominent figure in the Sri Lankan animal rights movement recognised for the leading role she plays in the lobby against captivity of elephants in Sri Lanka.
She highlighted the plight of captive elephants, once a taboo subject in Sri Lanka, to the world.
Panchali has exposed numerous cases of abuse to captive elephants.The cases of of the elephants Myan Prince, Vishwa, and Kandula are just a few among many. As a consequence she has faced many threats and attacks, mainly gender based, by the pro captive elephant lobby.
She has created many awareness building campaigns and programmes about elephants and founded the RARE Touring Theatre for Elephants. This is a touring street drama that travels around Sri Lanka building awareness about cruelty in the captive elephant industry and the challenges of human elephant conflict. It is a unique creation of Panchali's, and the first of its kind in the world.
Panchali attended Musaeus College in Colombo and is a Bachelor of Science graduate in Genetics, Microbiology and Biochemistry from Bangalore University. She is currently reading for her Masters in Environment Science at the Open University of Sri Lanka.
In addition to her work at RARE she also serves as a board member for the world renowned Global March For Elephants and Rhinos- USA @gm4er . This is a voluntary position, where she contributes her dedication, passion and her fierce voice for compassion, on a global scale, to conserve elephants and other endangered animals around the world.
Otara Gunewardene is involved in animal rights advocacy, conservation, community projects & she was a model. She is a role model to Sri Lankan girls & iconic entrepreneur that founded Sri Lankas's first department store.
Throughout her life Otara has been a voice for the voiceless, whether it was through the rescue and rehabilitation of street dogs, reforestaion and conservation efforts throughout Sri Lanka or through advocacy against captive wildlife and domestic animals in the country.
Otara graduated in Biology education at Bowling Green State University, USA. From there, alongside the creation of ODEL, Otara was a pioneer for animal welfare in Sri Lanka. Otara founded Embark, Sri Lankas No. 1 dog welfare organization a brand that has defined Otara & the way people looked at street dogs in Sri Lanka.
Her most prominent campaign was against the Dehiwala Zoo which led to the management taking measures to improve the living conditions for the animals. She campaigned to improve welfare of elephants at Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage and lobbied the government to enact the proposed Animal Welfare Bill which gained over 100,000 signatures.
She was involved in many deforestation campaigns including Wilpattu forest. She aids and contributes to legal cases for animal abuse including elephant smuggling.
Otara inspired her younger generation to become animal welfareists and she is solely responsible for making animal welfare a "Trend" in Sri Lanka by using her social media platforms and her voice to educate and create awareness on the suffering of animals and the need for changes.
Today, through the Otara Foundation, Otara continues to push for greater environmental protection, animal welfare education.
Otara’s dedication and empathy for the voiceless has touched millions of lives and continues to reach even more. Otara is a role model who continuously inspires those around her, including us at RARE and even the next generation.
When any animal cruelty incident is exposed in this country the first thing that comes to a Sri Lankans mind is "Otara". Who else deserves to be in our panel than Otara.
Steve Koyle, a Zoology graduate from Michigan State University has spent more than 35 years caring for animals and spent the last 21 years specializing in elephant care.
Steve is now one of leading captive elephant experts in the world, specialising in target training, positive reinforcement, footcare for elephants, and designing facilities to support a healithier life and welfare for elephants in captivity.
He is also popular as "Steve the foot guy" due to his knowledge and expertise on elephant foot, which is the most vital part in an elephant's body.
He started his career in elephants at the Phoenix Zoo in Arizona and he left the Zoo to establish @Elephant Care Unchained in July 2016, a 501c3 organization in USA.
Elephant Care Unchained believes in "Any Elephant, Any Where, Any Time" concept and Steve travels door to door in Asia, to good places and bad and to both ethical and non ethical elephant venues offering his professional advise and hands on foot care FREE,
"Unchaining" his knowledge and expertise to elephants in most need of welfare, a luxury that is otherwise available only to elephants in ethical sanctuaries and wealthy zoos.
Since then, Steve has helped hundreds of elephants in 6 (six) countries, India,
Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, a feat no other captive elephant expert in the world can boast of.
His work in Sri Lanka can be considered as his biggest achievement to date.
With invitation by RARE Sri Lanka he reached out to 75% of the captive elephants in Sri Lanka and almost 40% of elephant owners welcomed him to work on their elephants, including the elephant herds at Sacred Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, the _Ruhunu Maha Kataragama Dewalaya_ in South of Sri Lanka and the _Kelaniya Raja Maha Viharaya_ temple in Colombo.
He is the only foreign expert that was allowed to touch and provide care for the 2 (two) tuskers, Vasana and Sinharaja that carry the sacred Tooth Relics of the Buddha, considered as the 2 most scared tuskers in Sri Lanka at present. These were doors that were closed even to Sri Lankans, not just the world.
He was endorsed and recommended by "Tame Elephant Owners Association" President by “Voice for Elephants Sri Lanka”, a PRO captive elephant group aswell as by “RARE Sri Lanka”, Sri Lanka's most aggressive anti captive elephants lobby. They all recognised and were in awe of Steve's exceptional knowledge and skills, specially footcare.
He introduced a booklet on how to improve welfare of temple elephants in Sinhalese language to mahouts and elephant owners and did foot trims for 39 elephants. He was able to implement economical "Enrichment" methods for both temple elephants and riding camps for the first time in Sri Lanka in an effort to comfort stereotyping and strengthen muscles that have weakened due to effects of captivity.
Steve continues to travel the world in search of new challenges to help elephants that need his help. You can learn more about his work through
www.elephantcareunchained.com, youtube channel https://youtube.com/channel/UC3QZsLs_Vdnn9Trg_Fgr7vg
Dr. Ravindranath Dabare is no stranger to environmental and animal rights activists and he has never hesitated to step in when the environment or wild animal is under threat.
Dr. Dabare is an Attorney-at-Law, graduated from Sri Lanka Law College and he has been practicing law for over 27 years focusing on environmental litigation and public litigation. He has published books on Environmental Law and Case Law on Environmental Litigation and also is an editor of South Asia Law Journal. In addition to his law practice, Dr. Dabare shares his knowledge as a visiting lecturer at the University of Colombo and also works as an examiner of the Sri Lanka Law College.
He is passionate about ensuring equal environmental rights for all people while bringing justice to both people and the environment. Keeping this mission in mind, Dr. Dabare provides his leadership to the Centre for Environmental Justice to promote ecological sustainability by supporting ecologically sound community activities. Advocating for the protection of environmental justice and the formation of new environmental laws, and promoting environmental literacy are the two main components of his work. As an attorney-at-Law, he has appeared for over 350 environmental cases, and currently, he is representing the elephants of Sri Lanka in 6 (six) court cases including the collaborative court cases between RARE and CEJ challenging the gazette issued by the government on regulations on tamed elephant welfare and regulations of registration.
Rukshan Jayewardene has always voiced his strong opinions against the captive elephant industry, politically connected elephant smuggling and the zoo system.
Rukshan is s veteran conservationist and activist, famously known for his exceptional wildlife photographs in Sri Lanka.
Rukshan completed his tertiary education from the University of Maryland and the University of New Brunswick in Anthropology and Archaeology and he has a Master’s in South Asian Archaeology from the University of Cambridge.
Rukshan is a Director of the Wilderness and Protected Areas Foundation, and serves in the boards of many organizations. Rukshan lead the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society, the third oldest nature protection society in the world, and the first in Sri Lanka, as the president during 2016 - 2018.
Rukshan is considered as Sri Lanka's leopard expert and his knowledge in Sri Lankan wild animals is incomparable. The book, ‘For the Leopard - A Tribute to the Sri Lankan Leopard’, which Rukshan co-authored and contributed photos to, is a showcase of his love, passion, and commitment to the field.
“The birds in the sky and all animals on earth, have a right equal to that of the human to dwell freely as they will and desire.”
— Arahath Mahinda 247 BCE