GIFT ELEPHANTS TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES

Controlling animal population Deputy minister wants killing of wild boar and monkeys legalised

Deputy Minister Karunaratne Paranavithana said yesterday that excessive numbers of certain wild animals had led to many humananimal conflicts and therefore suggested that elephants should be gifted to other countries while animals like wild boar should be shot and sold for meat.

He said most of the wild animals posed some form of threat to humans and therefore, adequate measures should be taken to minimise human-animal conflicts.

“The human-elephant conflict is a major problem in rural areas. There are about 6,000 elephants in the country and its population is increasing rapidly. The Sri Lankan forests are unable to sustain the increasing elephant population. About 4,000 elephants are more than enough,” he told the Balangoda Coordination Committee meeting on Monday.

He said animal rights and wildlife laws of the country should be amended to rear elephants as pets and to send the surplus of wild-elephants to other countries to control the elephant population.

The deputy minister said he was not recommending the culling of elephants, but said laws should be enforced to legalise the killing of wild animals like wild boar and monkeys that cause a nuisance to people.

“If laws are enforced legalising the killing of wild boar, people should be allowed to sell their flesh as well. No one worries about killing of mosquitoes. The social dialogue regarding animal rights have to be more practical,” he said and added that he would take up this matter at the next parliamentary session.

The human-elephant conflict is a major problem in rural areas. There are about 6,000 elephants in the country and its population is increasing rapidly. The Sri Lankan forests are unable to sustain the increasing elephant population. About 4,000 elephants are more than enough