To prevent elephant theft, particularly baby elephants from the wild, Wildlife Conservation Forum has requested the National Zoological Gardens and Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage to carry out Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) tests on elephants given to private owners.
Forum’s Convener, Nayanaka Ranwella says they requested in writing from National Zoological Gardens, Director General Bashwara Senanka Gunaratne that all elephants given to private parties should not only go through a DNA test but also be tagged.
Despite, promising to do so, the Director General had failed to attend to the matter, claims Ranwella.
Addressing a media briefing at the National Library Auditorium on Wednesday, environmentalists said that normally when elephants were given away the National Zoological Gardens (NZG) came to an agreement with the receiving party. But the NZG has not signed any such agreement with receiving parties and has instead given sole ownership to the private owners.
Environmental Lawyer, Jagath Gunawardena says the agreement demands powers to the NZG to take back the elephant if it was found that the animal was not properly treated.
Most of the domesticated elephants are ill -treated, suffer from malnutrition and many died after suffering for years. Early deaths were a common feature, Environmental Conservation Trust, Convener Sajeeva Chamikara said.
Most of the domesticated elephants die without contributing to the breeding gene pool, he said.
Gunawardena said that according to the Ordinance, only the Department of Wildlife Conservation had the authority to capture elephants from the wild, only if, an elephant was identified as harmful to the crops or the public.
The necessary technical knowledge was available in the country to promote elephant conservation but he said it was not taking place effectively.
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