Reuters Posted online: Tuesday, March 02, 2004 at 2027 hours IST
1 234Next » Sri Lanka, March 1: Elephant polo is a slow game at the best of times, and especially so in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan mahouts do not normally ride their elephants, but walk beside them, so the animals are not used to being steered by someone sitting astride. At the fourth elephant polo festival in the historic town of Galle, this was cause for some confusion.
"The game is a lot faster in Nepal. Here, the mahouts and elephants are still learning the game," said Hugh Bardell, a sunburnt British soldier who played for the Thai team.
They better learn quickly, because Sri Lanka's domesticated elephants are in desperate need of a new job as machines take over their traditional role in the logging trade.
In 20 years, their numbers have dwindled from about 450 to 190, as captive elephants rarely breed and the government has had a ban on catching wild elephants since the mid-1970s.
About 40 elephants still work in logging, 40 have found new jobs in tourism, but the rest face an uncertain future.
At the same time, the undiminished demand for elephants in religious processions puts pressure on the dwindling number of elephants, especially the tuskers, of which only 18 are left.
Asian elephants rarely have tusks, unlike African elephants. In the Sri Lankan subspecies, they are present in only three to five percent of males.
