CSI TRAINING PROGRAMME IN GIRITALE
SERENDIPITY FOUNDATION TO CONDUCT
Ateam of crime scene investigators from the USA will be arriving in Sri Lanka next week to train a group of handpicked Department of Wildlife Conservation personnel in handling wildlife crime scenes and evidence recovery. The training team is from Serendipity Wildlife Foundation’s special ‘Csiwildlife’ unit in Orange County, California, that comprises present and retired law enforcement instructors that specialise in CSI work.
Serendipity Wildlife Foundation is a non-profit organisation based in the US and although requests from organisations in other countries have come in, it currently focuses on Kenya and Sri Lanka. While training and supporting wildlife officers to combat wildlife crimes, and specialising in investigations and recovery of evidence, the organisation works with other conservation and wildlife organisations so that future generations can see in the wild, what we see today.
The training will be held at the National Wildlife Training Centre in Giritale, and the curriculum includes training in DNA, fingerprints, tyre tracks and footprints, ballistics, arrest and control, search and seizure, crime scene photography, and electronic evidence analysis.
“I am excited to be teaching forensics in Sri Lanka, especially in an area that has such a high elephant population” said Magda Perez, an expert from CSI wildlife with 30
years of experience in the field of crime scene investigation. “I am also happy to be making this contribution to Sri Lanka wildlife so that now the perpetrators have a higher chance of getting caught and prosecuted.”
Magda has visited Kenya before, and this will be her first time in Sri Lanka.
“We are happy to be training Sri Lankan personnel who are in the frontlines of the war on wildlife crime. Though poaching of ivory is not as bad as in Africa, very often we forget that ‘bush meat’ – where certain wild animals killed for human consumption, is also illegal, and often, a blind eye is turned towards this type of crime” said Ravi Perera, the CEO of Serendipity Wildlife Foundation, and the Team Leader of Csiwildlife. Ravi has experience in training Antipoaching units in Africa, where multiple elephants and rhinos are killed every day.
Unlike most training classes, next week’s training will comprise plenty of practical training outdoors during daytime, as well as night exercises.
Csiwildlife considers this Phase 1 of the training, after which evaluation and progress will be monitored on all attendees for the next few months. Phase 2 will commence at the end of the year.
We are happy to be training Sri Lankan personnel who are in the frontlines of the war on wildlife crime. Though poaching of ivory is not as bad as in Africa, very often we forget that ‘bush meat’ is also illegal”
Ravi Perera