The Three-Legged Elephant Who Can’t Live Without His Human Best Friend
At the Elephant Transit Home in Udawalwawe, Sri Lanka, most elephants receive short-term rehabilitation. For Namal, it’s home.
On a sunny March morning in the southern plains of Sri Lanka, dust cakes the withering foliage surrounding Udawalwawe. This hamlet-turned-tourist-town brims with locals and foreigners, thanks to a national park in the vicinity. At nine in the morning, Namal is awake. He plays with his male friend, Hamu. I learn they are the same age — nine years old. But a set of thin wires separates them and marks their boundaries. The reason: Unlike his friend Hamu, Namal only has three legs.
Meanwhile, behind their residence shaded by a faded green roof, their juniors–four of them in one batch–hurry up for the first bottles of milk in the morning. Once in a while, Namal hears a loud cry from restless hungry youngsters and flaps his large ears. But often, Namal is too bossy to care for his juniors and continues to long for his friend’s playful behavior. Like his juniors and Hamu, Namal is an Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), a species named…
