Panamure is a village located in the

Ratnapura District Ratnapura ( Sinhala: රත්නපුර දිස්ත්‍රික්කය, Tamil: இரத்தினபுரம் மாவட்டம்) is a district of Sri Lanka in the Sabaragamuwa Province. The gem-mining centre of Sri La ...

Sabaragamuwa Province The Sabaragamuwa Province ( si, සබරගමුව පළාත ''Sabaragamuwa Paḷāta'', ta, சபரகமுவ மாகாணம் ''Sabaragamuwa Mākāṇam'') is one of the nine provinces of Sri Lanka, the first level administrati ...

, Sri Lanka. It is approximately from

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

and from

Ratnapura Ratnapura (; ) ("City of Gems" in Sinhala and Tamil) is a major city in Sri Lanka. It is the capital city of Sabaragamuwa Province, as well as the Ratnapura District, and is a traditional centre for the Sri Lankan gem trade. It is located ...

. The village is significant because it is the site of the last

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae an ...

kraal Kraal (also spelled ''craal'' or ''kraul'') is an Afrikaans and Dutch word, also used in South African English, for an enclosure for cattle or other livestock, located within a Southern African settlement or village surrounded by a fence of th ...

in Sri Lanka, Panamure Eth Gala (පනාමුරේ ඇත්ගාල සහ දිය බුබූල). Elephant kraals had been held in Panamure twelve times: 1896, 1898, 1902, 1907, 1912, 1914, 1918, 1922, 1924, 1929, 1944 with the last in 1950. The area was part of the virgin forest belonging to Sir

Francis Molamure Sir Alexander Francis Molamure, (7 February 1888 – 25 January 1951) (commonly known as Sir Francis Molamure or A. F. Molamure) was a Ceylonese politician. He became the first speaker of both the State Council of Ceylon and Parliament of Ceyl ...

and the kraal was built around a natural water spring, “Diya Bubula”. In 1950 seventeen wild elephants were herded into the kraal, with a large bull elephant becoming agitated when the matriarch elephant was noosed, charging the tamed elephants trying to corral the herd. After numerous attempts to noose the bull elephant the hunters decided to shoot and kill it. The resultant public outcry to this killing was so significant that the government passed a law banning elephant kraals, and the capture and killing of elephants. There are a number of other historical places around the village apart from Panamure Eth Gala including Maduwanwela Walawwa, Kawanthissa Rajamaha Viharaya, and Walalgoda Tampita Raja Maha Viharaya.

References

{{coord, 6, 21, N, 80, 46, E, display=title, region:LK_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Populated places in Sabaragamuwa Province