By Ifham Nizam
Department of Wildlife and Conservation Director General Chandana Suriyabandara has instructed his officials to arrest those who feed wild elephants and behave in a way that harm the wild animals. A Department official yesterday said that they would resort to take legal action against those who fed wild animals, particularly elephants. The Department also said that during the past four days, due to the deployment of mobile vehicles on the Buttala-Kataragama road, wild elephants had stopped blocking the road, and incidents of damage to vehicles had not been reported during that period.
Agriculture, Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation, Minister Mahinda Amaraweera has asked the Director General of Wildlife to continue with the short-term programme –mobile services- immediately to prevent this situation.Accordingly from 5.00 am to midnight on the last four days, officers and vehicles of the Yala Forest Site Office were deployed to drive the wild elephants staying on the Buttala – Kataragama road to pick up food from the public into the forest and to prevent accidents to vehicles caused by some overzealous animals and civilians, a programme was implemented using mobile vehicles.
Suriyabandara said that the wildlife department has decided to continue with the programme from now on. The Department of Wildlife says that the damage caused by wild elephants had increased as some people traveling in vehicles on this road fed the wild elephants.