The government is embarking on an elephant hunt under the guise of conducting a census of elephants, the Collective of Environmental Organizations warned.
The group held a press conference today (August 9) to voice their protests over a statement made by the Minister of Wildlife, S.M. Chandrasena who earlier revealed that there weren’t sufficient numbers of elephants available for cultural pageants at the Sri Dalada Maligawa (Temple of the tooth) and other temples.
The Minister also claimed that around 180 elephants will be needed for the temples to carry out its activities.
The collective of environmentalists expressed their objection to these statements and requested the leaders and intellectuals of the country and other organizations not to assist the government in this illegal and environmentally detrimental effort.
Environmental lawyer Jagath Gunawardena stated at the press conference that the government had no legal power to catch elephant calves from the wild for this purpose as there were laws in place that protected against such activity.
It was stated that the Temple of the Tooth already had 12 elephants for its cultural activities while it was further revealed that a elephant calf who was taken by the temple in 2007 had died after allegedly been tortured during its training.
source:adaderana