The Gathering: Worth Rs. 1.2 billion?

Intro:Srilal Miththapala, a passionate wild life enthusiast, untiring advocate of conservation of wild elephants, and experienced tourism professional, attempts to evaluate an economic value to the world famous Elephant Gathering at the Minneriya National Wild Life Park, which today has become a major internationally acclaimed tourist attraction. He goes on to show how important this phenomena has now become to a wide cross section of stakeholders, both big and small, and emphasises the need for it be carefully protected and nurtured.

The Phenomena of the ‘Gathering’

‘The Gathering’ (of elephants) at Minneriya National Park takes place from around June to October each year, and has become a well-known phenomenon in the world today. During the drought in the central province of Sri Lanka, some 150-250 wild elephants gather around this ancient man-made reservoir, covering approximately 8,900 hectares, which was constructed by King Mahasen in the 3rd century AD. This large reservoir fills up during the north-east monsoon around November to April each year. 

When the rain ceases, and the dry season begins, the drought takes its toll, and the water in the reservoir starts to dry up. Although the reservoir shrinks quite dramatically, it never really runs dry. As the water recedes, it leaves behind fertile moist soil where lush grass quickly sprouts. The entire reservoir is surrounded by scrub jungle, which opens out in the vast plains of the Minneriya tank. 

This provides an ideal and unique refuge for wild elephants during the dry season, where there is abundant water, nutritious grasslands and also a ready-made forest cover to, retreat to when the afternoon sun comes too hot. 

Over the years, ‘The Gathering’ has become one of the most popular attractions for visitors, both local and foreign, as is evident from the dramatic rise of visitor statistics of Minneriya Park.

The increase from 2010 to 2014 in foreign visitors to the Minneriya National Park of more than 400% is far in excess of the corresponding numbers in the Yala National Park, which shows only a 136% increase. This clearly indicates the enormous impact that the ‘Gathering’ has had to popularise the Minneriya Park and corresponding tourism growth in the area.

Internationally ‘The Gathering’ has been rated as the world’s 6th Greatest Wildlife Spectacles by none other than the prestigious Lonely Planet tourist publication. 

Wild elephants may have been congregating in this location for decades, but given the lack of any attempt to count the numbers until recently, it is impossible to know how the numbers have changed over the last few decades, let alone centuries. A few local safari vehicles drivers were aware that during the dry season elephants could be seen easily seen here. But as small groups of elephants were encountered very quickly, the drivers would turn back very soon, and most tourists saw no more than a handful of elephants. 

Very few tourists (and hence local safari drivers) waited on till late evening, and drove around to the witness the large congregation that was taking place and had no inkling that the numbers were very unique and significant. 

In the late early 2000’s, awareness grew that viewing wild elephants in Minneriya was possible, without having to spend long hours in trying to locate animals. From the cool comforts of star class hotels in the Dambulla and Sigiriya regions, in less than half an hour, a visitor can be at the park entrance and then in another 40 minutes or so, drive through reasonably good tracks to reach the open plains of the Minneriya tank. One has to only park the vehicle and wait patiently, when around 3:30 or 4 p.m. the ‘performance begins’, as the elephants gradually come out of the forest cover to feed and water 

Evaluation of value of the Gathering (2014)    

There are three main stakeholders on whom the Gathering has a direct positive financial impact.

a. Hotels of the area

b. Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC)

c. Jeep Service Providers

To establish these financial benefits, it will be necessary to make some reasonable assumptions related to certain aspects, which is given below:

A. Hotels of the area

nIt is assumed that hotels in Habarana, Sigiriya, Dambulla and Giritale would directly benefit from the Gathering due to increased occupancy. 

• Assumed an average room rate $ 125 at an exchange rate of Rs. 135. 
• The average estimated occupancy in these hotels is in the order of 65%
• The period of Gathering normally last for five months from around June to October (150 days)
• Usually visitors, who come to view the Gathering, stay in hotels in the vicinity as it is not usually possible to undertake visiting the park on a single day trip from Colombo. 
• It is estimated that 35% of the overall hotel occupancy (65%) of these selected hotels can be attributed to the Gathering. 
• In a resort hotel, in-house resident guests normally consume extra food and beverage in the hotel premises, especially after a long safari drive. Hence, extra food and beverage revenue from in-house guests is estimated to be 20% of room revenue. 

Based on these assumptions the overall incremental revenue gained by hotels in the area can be computed as given below:

B.Department of Wildlife Conservation

• The DWC directly benefits from the Gathering due to the revenue earned from both Sri Lankan and foreign visitors has given below:

C.Jeep Service Providers 

Assume average five persons per jeep.

Assume percentage of visitors hiring jeeps at the entrance 65%

Summary

Taking the above conservative assumptions, the following direct revenue attributed to the Gathering can be then arrived at. 

Conclusion

From the foregoing, it can be seen that the phenomena of the Elephant Gathering in Minneriya National Park is benefiting stakeholders of the region directly by about Rs. 1.25 billion each year. This translates into overall earnings of about Rs. 8.5 million per day from the ‘Gathering’.

Hence, it is evident that the Gathering has a far reaching impact on a wide cross section of stakeholders in the region, both large and small, who are reaping rich rewards both financially and through maintenance of livelihoods.

It is therefore, very vital that all these stakeholders should work together to protect and safeguard this natural wonder, and prevent any disruption whatsoever to the ‘Gathering’ in the future.