Drinking ban for mahouts

SRI LANKA will issue captive elephants with their own biometric identity cards and ban their riders from drinking on the job under a wide-ranging new animal protection law.

Many rich Sri Lankans, including Buddhist monks, keep elephants as pets to show off their wealth, but complaints of ill treatment and cruelty are widespread. The new measures are aimed at protecting the animals’ welfare and include strict regulations around working elephants, as well as mandating a daily two-and-a-half-hour bath for each creature.

Data show there are about 200 domesticated elephants in the nation, with the population in the wild estimated at about 7,500. The new law will require all owners to ensure animals under their care have new photo identity cards with a DNA stamp.

It also brings in multiple regulations for working elephants.

Baby elephants can no longer be used for work – even cultural pageants – and cannot be separated from their mothers.

Logging elephants cannot be worked for more than four hours a day and night work is prohibited.

There are new restrictions on the tourism industry too – from now on, no more than four people can ride an elephant at once, and they must sit on a well-padded saddle. Further, the use of elephants in films is banned, except for government productions under strict veterinary supervision, as is allowing their riders to drink while working.

Those who violate the new law will have their elephant taken into state care and could face a threeyear prison sentence.