American Singer Cher has taken to twitter to slam Sri Lanka after it was revealed that the highest number of elephant deaths in the world is annually reported from the country. “Shri Lanka (sic) must be very proud to be the biggest killers of elephants in the world” she said in the tweet.
Cher was instrumental in getting Sri Lankan elephant Kaavan released from a Pakistani Zoo after living in isolation for nearly three decades. He was later rescued and sent to an Elephant sanctuary in Cambodia. Kaavan was known as the ‘world’s loneliest elephant’ after his partner Saheli died in 2012. Kaavan was gifted by the government of Sri Lanka to Pakistan in 1985
Earlier this week The Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) in parliament was informed that the highest number of elephant deaths in the world due to the human- elephant conflict is annually reported in Sri Lanka.
The COPA was informed in this regard during a discussion held on the issues surrounding the human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka, while the committee appointed to study the issue briefed the committee on its findings.
It was further revealed that on an average 272 elephants are reported dead for a year in Sri Lanka due to the human- elephant conflict, but 407 elephants had died last year alone.
The Sri Lankan govt has handed out guns to people to help them protect their their homes and crops.from wild elephants. The wild ones are starving since a fence was built to keep them inside the reserve and supposedly reduce human/elephant conflict by keeping the wild ones in their own terriory. This is a good idea,, but, the land they have fenced off has no feed on it to sustain the wild elephants. Obviously either the fences have been broken down by skinny, bone protruding wild elephants or the people have encroached onto the elephants land. Have you seen pictures of starving wild mother elephants and their calves? They are dying bags of bones.