In north-central Sri Lanka’s Minneriya National Park, hundreds of elephants gather each year to the shores of an ancient reservoir built more than 1,700 years ago. Tara and Biso are two such elephant matriarchs who along with their ancestors have the trip for centuries, visit Minneriya & Kaudulla to bathe, mate, socialize and, most importantly, to feed as part of an annual event known as “The Gathering.” This congregation of elephants is now one of the world’s greatest wildlife events attracting large numbers of tourists from different parts of the world.
A collaborative elephant conservation effort by Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts, John Keells Foundation and the Centre for Conservation and Research was initiated in 2014 involving a two-year research on elephant gathering, behavioural and dispersion patterns in the Anuradhapura District. As a result of this collaboration, Tara and Biso, were fitted with GPS satellite collars in November 2017 in collaboration with the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC). Cinnamon hotels has been operating in this area for the last 30 years. Therefore, as an environmentally conscious operation they sought to give back to this iconic species by collaring two elephants of two different herds in order to help formulate scientific information to improve the management of elephant habitats.
As result of these tracking devices, the team was able to obtain very first image of Tara’s new elephant calf named ‘Tharaka’ on the 26th of January 2018 enabling the DWC to determine the exact date of the its birth for the first time as usually the date of birth is unknown. It is hoped that through this initiative the full story behind elephant gathering and what happens to these magnificent animals during the remaining 9 months of year can be unearthed.