Request for information about lone elephants
 

by Florence Wickramage

The Director General of the Department of Wildlife Conservation Dayananda Kariyawasam has renewed his call to communities living in Elephant habitat areas to inform the nearest Wildlife Office about lone elephants straying into their cultivations and homesteads.

Kariyawasam requests people to remain calm if they encounter an elephant and not to excite the animals which could attack if provoked.

These elephants could be those left behind or gets stranded during the current elephant drive.

The elephant drive is conducted to relocate pocketed animals in large national parks where ample food and water are available. In the Wayamba Drive elephants are driven to Thabbowa, Kahalla-Pallekele and Wilpattu National Parks and in the Southern Drive to Lunugamvehera National Parks.

Since the drives are undertaken on lengthy distances, there remains a possibility for an elephant or two to get left behind. These are the elephants who wander about aimlessly. Therefore the best possible course of action for villagers is to inform the nearest Wildlife Office and not try to attack the animal, Kariyawasam said.