The Ministry of Environment says emergency measures are under way to keep water and fodder reaching wild animals as the El Niño dry spell deepens, and has warned that the greater danger to wildlife right now is not the drought but people, the Daily Mirror reported on Sunday.
Water is being trucked by bowser into reservoirs inside national parks and protected areas, the ministry said. Artificial waterholes are being maintained and fodder supplied to animals facing food shortages. The Department of Wildlife Conservation is running the operation alongside other institutions under the ministry.
With support from the tri-forces, the ministry said, continuous efforts are being made to rescue stranded animals and to give urgent veterinary care to wild elephants and others injured by human activity.
The warning
The ministry’s statement spent as much time on human conduct as on the weather. It said wildlife faces additional dangers from gunshots, from explosive devices known as hakka patas — jaw bombs hidden in food that detonate in an animal’s mouth — from illegal electric fences and from poisoning.
“While the drought is a natural challenge, the suffering caused by human cruelty is preventable,” the ministry said. “Shooting animals, setting up illegal electric fences or laying poison can turn an already difficult situation into a tragedy.”
It asked the public, and particularly communities living close to wildlife habitats, not to harm animals and to let them move freely in search of water and food.
“Thirst and hunger are burdens shared by both humans and beasts,” the statement said. “During these harsh dry spells, ensuring that wildlife is kept out of harm’s way is a responsibility shared by all.”
The conditions behind it
The appeal lands in the middle of a dry spell the Meteorology Department has said may be driven by the strongest El Niño in 75 years. The Environment Ministry puts more than 160,000 people in eight districts as affected, with over 78,000 described as having lost livelihoods.
The pressure on parks is already visible in operational decisions. Blocks 1 and 2 of Yala National Park were closed for a month from mid-September on drought grounds, and tortoises have been rescued from drying tanks at Kantale. Human-elephant conflict deaths, meanwhile, have been running lower this year than in the last — a trend a severe drought, which pushes elephants out of parks toward village water and crops, tends to reverse.
Heavy rain of more than 100mm is now forecast for several provinces, but a single afternoon’s downpour runs off rather than refilling the tanks and waterholes animals depend on.
Not reported
The ministry gives no numbers. It does not say how many parks or protected areas are receiving bowser water, how many bowsers are running, how many artificial waterholes are being maintained, or what the operation costs and who funds it.
It does not say how many animals have been rescued or treated, how many deaths have been recorded this dry season, or in which districts. No figures are given for hakka patas incidents, shootings, poisonings or illegal electric-fence deaths this year, and no enforcement action or prosecution is mentioned despite the emphasis on cruelty.
The statement does not say how long the ministry expects the measures to run, whether any additional park closures are planned beyond Yala, or whether the Wildlife Department has asked the Treasury for extra funds.
