Are we better than Animals...? Young Tharindu has the answer

I think Tharindu was once an elephant (in another life). And now, he’s been born again to save the elephants.”- then Minister of Wildlife and Sustainable Development, Gamini Jayawickrema Perera said at the launch of twenty three year-old Tharindu Muthukumarana’s mammoth undertaking, The Life of Last Proboscideans : Elephants at Kadirgamar Centre on August 13.

Dedicating his gigantic work to well-wishers and the conservationists, Tharindu raise concerns about an impending danger of total extinction of Asian elephants during the Anthropogenic Holocene extinction.   

The book’s authenticity, clarity of thought and complete production of established facts blended with original ideas makes it a very readable and moving text.   

The chapter on Mythology makes it intermittently amusing but not overly exhaustive.   
Tharindu deserves acclaim, and should be congratulated on his presentation of the complex events of this category of giants on land. This is perhaps a very helpful volume from the point of view of understanding the world of pachyderms.  

 
This book should be read not only for the minute of the details of the elephant population, but also for the alerts it provides. 

“If history’s lessons were not heeded, mankind is surely destined to be consumed by them. Very occasionally a book comes along that change your life, in the sense that it alters your thinking and causes you to reevaluate the things that everyone knows. Tharindu’s book is such a book.  

On one level, this is a book about animal kingdom, about human culture, which does not sound particularly promising.   

One of the book’s main strengths, and most perceptible features, is the way it constructs its overarching accounts from meticulously-researched facts

The study of pachyderms can be a niche subject, and it can be arid. The book starts from what may seem an innocuous topic: However, that includes both the entire history of life on earth and the history of Proboscideans itself, and the book is notable for both its breadth and depth. It focuses in immense detail on single events. It thus offers a comprehensive overview of the pachyderm’s history and existence. 

Tharindu also challenges many of the universal beliefs about what we ‘think we know’ about the in intricacies of nature at a point, when the question of ‘Elephant –human conflict’ is a daily topic in media and the public sense of right and wrong.  One of the book’s main strengths, and most perceptible features, is the way it constructs its overarching accounts from meticulously-researched facts.

The Life of Last Proboscideans: Elephants, was launched at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute (The Lighthouse), 24 Horton Place, Colombo 7, Sri Lanka on Sunday, August 13, 2017  

The text is straightforward, and full of well-expressed remarks or comments that reverberate long after the book is finished.   

One of the most fascinating passages in the book is a discussion of elephant participation in religious rituals.  

 
The book is profusely illustrated, hundreds of photographs, sketches, and illustration are included to demonstrate or accompany the paragraphs in the text.   

He soaks up animal facts and explains eco systems; there are chapters formed around behaviours and defence systems, and an absorbing chapter on the history of life on earth. The book is divided up into several sections. His art is simple and amazing. I would say the length alone makes it better suited to upper elementary and middle-school elephant lovers. There is ample white space around the illustrations and text making it less visually distracting.   

It would be a great way to start senior school children on their reading journey as well as their journey of learning about environment and elephants. A couple of copies should be made available in every school library.   

A reader would value the descriptions on elephant intelligence, the intricacy of their lives and families and their skill to endure famine and human brutality. One can discover the tenderness of the animal, how the trunks that reach out and gently stroke a nervous toddler and a fierce commitment to defend their kind in the face of devastatingly superior force.   

The book gathers almost one-and-a-half decades’ worth of study on the elephant into a single volume. The book is important for contravening the decades-old hypothesis about elephant behaviour. Thus it facilitates a much more conversant approach to saving the elephant and discovering better ways to support labours that would see humans living happily side by side with these wonderful non-humans.  There are still hunters and poachers, who shoot the elephants for their ivory. The book enlightened me on many such cruel practices.   

Tharindu’s observations of courtship, birth, communication, death, and social structure of the species kept my interest to the end. The author is first and foremost a ground researcher with long hours of first hand observation of untamed and tamed elephants. The trouble with a lot of expert books of elephant conduct is that they almost have too much familiarity. Tharindu strikes a balance between talking scientifically relevant information while also amusing the reader. It is both good science and good writing.   
Ever since I can commit to memory elephants have fascinated me. Their sheer dimension, their fluttering ears, the echoing and trumpeting noises they make, the unhurried and methodical way they stroll and their amazingly attractive tusks fascinated me. The author had relieved me of all my reservations, doubts and speculations.   
Clashes between elephants and people aren’t new, but they are growing. As human populations grow, territory becomes disjointed, with elephants losing more of the space they need to live. But the solutions to human-elephant conflicts are often politically provoked and can lead to brutality to animals. Individual elephants and whole groupings may be fenced in to insignificant areas or even culled.   

Managing such conflicts entails great care; Tharindu has a solution.   

Finally, I admire the author for the work he has done and his dedication to the species; the world needs a few more youngsters like Tharindu Muthukumarana.   

I would recommend that anyone pick up this book for pleasure reading as well as an interesting scientific study of the elephants.”