Meet Bala Amarasekaran, an accountant turned conservationist in Sierra Leone who founded the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary as part of his life’s work to protect the endangered Western Chimpanzee.
Conservation was never part of Bala’s plan. Born in Sri Lanka, he immigrated to Sierra Leone as a teenager, where he worked as an accountant for 15 years. Shortly after his wedding in 1985, Bala and his wife Sharmila were travelling through a rural village outside Freetown when they spotted a baby chimpanzee tied to a tree. Realising the young chimp needed medical help, Bala paid the owner $20 and without any wildlife experience, took the chimp home and nursed him back to health. One chimp soon led to another six as Bala and Sharmila became aware of other mistreated chimps around Freetown.
Unable to return captive chimps to the wild, Bala needed a permanent solution for his growing primate tribe and contacted Jane Goodall for help. While the logical answer was to relocate the chimps to a sanctuary in Zambia, Bala knew the issue needed to be resolved locally as Sierra Leone had the third largest population of chimps West Africa. With a little nudge from Goodall, Bala envisioned a “halfway house” for orphaned chimps within a safe yet semi-wild environment. In November 1995, on 100 acres of pristine forest outside Freetown, the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary opened its doors.
Over the past three decades, Tacugama has survived many challenges, including a civil war, and flourished into a dynamic force in global conservation. From education programs to field research and eco-tourism, the sanctuary continues to rehabilitate malnourished and abandoned primates with over 100 chimpanzees now calling Tacugama home.
When he’s not on site, Bala works with local communities and governments to strengthen wildlife policy and was instrumental in promoting the chimpanzee as the official animal of Sierra Leone, a move that will ensure the long-term survival of chimps and their forest habitat. Driven by passion and accountability, it’s hard to believe Bala’s conservation mission began almost by accident.
If they looked for someone with the right capacity to run a chimp sanctuary, I would be in the back of the line. But if you look for someone who’s prepared to stay for the long haul and try to do something, then probably I would be at the front of the line.
