Apr 26, Colombo: Sri Lanka has said on Wednesday it would allow individuals and temples to adopt baby elephants under definite conditions overturning a ban on adoptions.
The cabinet of ministers approved a proposal tabled by the Minister of Sustainable Development and Wildlife Gamini Jayawickrama Perera to provide some elephants to individuals and religious places under definite conditions.
The Minister has pointed out that maintenance of the present number of 88 elephants in a restricted land area of 30 acres at Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage has become a difficult task.
The Cabinet of Ministers also approved recommendations on issuing orders for providing elephants for Perahera (religious processions), regularizing registration of domesticated elephants and ensuring their protection.
The ban on adopting elephants had led to worries there would not be enough tame elephants for Buddhist pageants, an AFP report said.
“Wildlife conservation is good, but we also need to conserve our cultural pageants,” government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne was quoted as saying.
Senaratne said the government decision had been motivated partly by overcrowding at Pinnawala, which was set up as an elephant orphanage and now runs a successful breeding program.
He said strict conditions would be put in place to ensure the animal’s welfare. Individuals would have to pay 10 million rupees ($66,000) for an elephant, while temples would get them for free.
Last year, Sri Lanka unveiled tougher laws, including a ban on using young elephants for logging and other physical work, as part of a crackdown on cruelty to animals.
Capturing wild elephants is illegal in Sri Lanka where according to official records the population of elephants in the wild is at about 7,500.
Source – 26/04/2017, Colombo Page, See more at – http://www.colombopage.com/archive_17A/Apr26_1493219655CH.php
