All seven elephants in Dehiwela should be taken to Ridiyagama

Dilum Alagiyawanna, wildlife conservationist and photographer said that he was always against taking elephants out from the wild. “Once taken out of the wild, they don’t come under conservation anymore. In Sri Lanka there are over 6000 elephants and we cannot justify keeping wild elephants in the zoo. Inside the zoo I realised that the area around them is not enough. The zoo has one male that is Bandula and six other female elephants. The length of their chain is just one metre and nobody would accept to keep an elephant in such a small area. We should in fact consider taking all seven elephants to Ridiyagama and make them chain free.”

Dilum further said that four out of the six female elephants were always moving their head which means they are mentally ill. “Zoo keepers tell us that there is a circus but cannot put the elephants together because they are not in a good mental state. Therefore I recommend that the President should take steps to release these elephants to the wild immediately. The Dehiwela Zoo spans 10.1 hectares and has 3000 animals with more than 1.8 million visitors coming in every year. The zoological garden in Singapore spans over a 70 acre extent of land with 2500 animals almost the same number of visitors coming in every year. But if we take the Zoo in Singapore they have gone a long way. They have stopped using elephants for circuses but instead they are taken for a bath in the morning and people can watch it. They don’t use the bullhook but a very blunt object which doesn’t harm the animal at all. Likewise they have made it an animal friendly experience which the people also admire. But now with the pressure coming from European travel agencies, elephant rides and circuses will be stopped and Sri Lanka as a nation that depends on tourism should take this warning seriously and ensure a chain-free, cruelty-free, animal and human-friendly experience.”