The Most Venerable Maha Nayake Theras of the Malwatte and Asgiriya Chapters have sought to defend Diyawadana Nilame Pradeep Nilanga Dela over the cruel separation of two baby jumbos from their mothers at Pinnawala last Saturday. The animals are still grieving.

The Ven. Theras in what they call a clarification issued to the press––The Island did not get a copy of it––have wholeheartedly endorsed the removal of the poor elephant sucklings on grounds that they had been donated to Sri Dalada Maligawa and there is a dearth of domesticated elephants for cultural events like processions.

It is unfortunate that the two prelates in their statement make a subtle attempt to give a religious twist to a purely secular matter. They accuse the environmentalists who are protesting against the forcible displacement of baby jumbos of being silent on the killing of wild elephants and call them a group ill-disposed towards traditional Buddhist festivals. Nothing could be further from the truth!

The Mahanayake Theras' clarification hardly clarifies anything. Instead, it obfuscates the central issue that it is wrong to separate baby elephants from their mothers before they are weaned from breastfeeding. Dragging extraneous and peripheral issues into an argument is tantamount to muddying the water by way of an escape. Protesting against cruelty to baby elephants and their mothers could, by no stretch of imagination, be likened to a campaign against donating elephants to Sri Dalada Maligawa or an instance of intolerance of Buddhist traditions.

Among those who have condemned Diyawadana Nilame for having inflicted suffering on the Pinnawala elephants are some Buddhist monks. The National Bhikku Front yesterday issued a statement to the media taking Diyawadana Nilame to task and asking him not to bring Buddhist institutions into disrepute through such acts of cruelty. Can anyone accuse these protesting monks of being intolerant of Buddhist traditions? Never! One may safely argue that the conclusion of the two Maha Nayake Theras is totally untenable and equally absurd and therefore their proposition is not valid at all. Reductio ad absurdum!

There is no way anyone can justify what Diyawadana Nilame and Minister of Sports and Recreation Gamini Lokuge have jointly done to the baby elephants and their mothers. They have deprived the two calves of their mother's milk, warmth and care. All four animals are in agony unable to bear their loss, though the callous perpetrators and their unsympathetic apologists may not feel their suffering.

Since the Maha Nayake Theras have accused environmentalists of being silent on the plight of wild jumbos being killed at a rate, what will they say if they are asked whether they as Buddhist monks have done anything to prevent the wanton slaughter of those animals?

Let the Maha Nayake Theras be told with due respect once again that protests against Diyawadana Nilame's cruelty to baby elephants have nothing to do with Sri Dalada Maligawa, of which sadly he is the custodian, the Buddha Sasana or Buddhist festivals like the Dalada Perahera.

Animal rights activists are only demanding that the poor babies now languishing in Kandy be returned to their weeping mothers at Pinnawala. The question that needs to be asked from the Malwatte and Asgiriya prelates is whether it is in keeping with the teachings of the Compassionate One to deprive baby elephants of their mothers' milk by forcibly separating them from one another. Would the Buddha ever have allowed sucklings to be torn from their mothers in his name? The answer is an emphatic 'No' as is known even to a tyke.

We quoted an official at Pinnawala yesterday as saying that the pining elephant mothers were running a serious health risk as milk was clotting in their breasts. We have a suggestion. Now that they do not have their calves around to feed, get them to suckle Diyawadana Nilame Dela and Minister Gamini Lokuge.