News
Over 55 elephants illegally captured from the wild between 2008 and 2018
By Ifham Nizam
More than 55 elephants had been illegally captured from the wild between January 2008 and December 2018, but the law enforcement had failed to bring the culprits to justice, researcher T. G. Supun Lahiru Prakash of Biodiversity Conservation and Research Circle said yesterday.
Prakash is part of a team that studied the illegal trade of elephants in Sri Lanka.
He said: “We collected data from case records maintained by the country’s court system, where the suspects of illegal elephant trade were prosecuted in addition to information gathered by archives and interviews with various stakeholders. We documented 55 cases where elephants were illegally traded.
This is probably an underestimate due to the high mortality rate of elephants during capture operations and challenges in collecting data on this highly organised illicit trade.”
Out of these, 33 elephants had been registered, while 17 were not registered, he said. Prakash said three were under government letters of patent, and no information was available of two elephants.
“We found records of 55 cases of suspected smuggled elephants. Forty-six of those elephants had an identity reported with a name. Twenty-four elephants were females and 23 were males, while the sex of eight elephants was not reported. Two elephants were identified as calves, 14 as juveniles (2 – 5 years old), 29 as sub-adults (6 – 10 years old), four as adults and six were not aged.”
They had identified a major gap between the reported age in the registration documents and the estimated age of elephants by the veterinarians of the Department of Wildlife, Prakash said. The average reported age in the registration documents of elephants according to their licenses was higher than the estimated age by the veterinarians; the difference was statistically significant, he said.
“Significantly, more elephants were found to be seized in 2014–2015 than in other time periods combined. We found evidence of the illegal capture of wild elephants from wildlife protected areas and state forests. More importantly, we identified evidence of corruption of wildlife officers, involvement of politicians and other high-ranking personnel in the illegal wildlife trade, and lack of active enforcement of wildlife law as major challenges to overcome the illegal capture and domestic trade in wild elephants in Sri Lanka.”
The research team comprised W.A.A.D. Upul Indrajith, A. M. C. P. Attanayaka (Department of Wildlife Conservation, Jayanthipura Road, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka), Suranjan Karunarathna (Nature Explorations and Education Team), Madhava Boteju (Biodiversity Conservation Society), Vincent Nijman (Department of Social Sciences, Gipsy Lane, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK) and Sujan Henkanaththegedara (Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Longwood University, Farmville, Virginia, USA).
By Priyan de Silva
The Election Commission (ECSL) has opposed a move by the government to appoint representatives of the Chairpersons of the Regional Development Committee to monitor local government institutions.
ECSL Chairman Nimal G. Punchihewa told The Island that the government had informed the ECSL of its plan to appoint representatives of the Chairpersons of the Regional Development Committee to monitor the local government bodies and the ECSL had decided to write to the Ministry of Local Government opposing the move, he said. A Chairman of a regional development committee ESD a representative of a particular political party and it would be unfair by other parties for such appointments to be made, the EC Chairman said.
Punchihewa said that the administration of local government institutions could be done through Municipal Commissioners and Divisional Secretaries.Many political parties had complained against the government move, he said.
By Saman Indrajith
The JVP would file a fresh application before the Supreme Court against the government for not holding the local council polls, JVP MP Vijitha Herath said yesterday.Addressing the media at the party headquarters in Pelawatte, Herath said that his party had ascertained fresh information by invoking the Right to Information Act about the funds needed for the holding of the elections and his party would file another fundamental rights case against those responsible for conducting elections.
“The LG polls were to be held on 09 March. They were postponed until 25 April, and later they were put off indefinitely. The President appoints Governors to the provinces and the local councils are under them. Now, he says no party commands the support of 50 percent of voters.
Is this reason why he is not holding elections? His claim that there are no funds for elections is not acceptable. The Election Commission (EC) has, in a letter to the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, asked for Rs 1,100 million in installments for conducting local government elections. The Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, on 07 March, informed
the EC that the latter’s request had been referred to the Minister of Finance on the same day. But so far the money has not been released. As per a report released by the Treasury, the government revenue was Rs 177,900 million in January this year alone. Of that amount, Rs 156,760 was allocated to government institutions. The Treasury has Rs 21,410 million. In February, the government revenue was at Rs. 271,750 million and of that Rs. 208,620 million was spent. The balance was Rs 63,130 million. In January and February, the Treasury had Rs 84,270 million. These figures have been officially confirmed by a Deputy Treasury Secretary. The EC is seeking only Rs 2,460 million for elections. So, the claim that there is no money for elections is false as per official records. We will submit this information to the Supreme Court when we file a fresh application. We will prove that the government has lied to people,” Herath said.
SJB mayoral candidate for Colombo Municipal Council Mujibur Rahuman alleges that President Ranil Wickremeisnghe has violated election laws by appointing UNP’s mayoral candidate Rosy Senanayake as the Presidential Advisor on Local Government.
Participating in a talk show hosted by a private TV channel, Rahuman said that Senanayake was a candidate for the delayed local government polls. “She has submitted nominations for the Colombo Municipal Council from the UNP list. It is illegal to appoint a candidate to such a post pending an election. The local council polls have not yet been cancelled and cases pertaining to the holding of elections are in progress,” he said, adding that of all the posts the local government candidate had been given the post of Presidential Advisor on Local Governance.
“More than three months have lapsed since Senanayake stepped down from the Colombo Mayor post, but she is still occupying the Mayor’s Residence. The President says that he is implementing the system change demanded by people. The change he is actually doing is giving appointments to his cronies. Is it the change the people expected,” Rahuman queried.
EC opposes govt. move to appointment its henchmen to monitor local councils
JVP says govt. has enough funds for elections
Rosy’s appointment violative of election laws – Mujibur
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