Three members of family attacked by wild elephant

Galkiriyagama Police said that a couple and their grand daughter were admitted to the Anuradhapura Hospital due to serious injuries sustained in an elephant attack while travelling in their trishaw on Saturday at Karawilagala in Galkiriyagama.

The police said that the three family members who sustained injuries were the residents of Karawilagala identified as D. M. Ekanayaka (60) Sirima Irangani (55) and their granddaughter (3).

They were returning to their daughter’s house in Avukana when the elephants had suddenly charged at the trishaw according to the villagers. They were taken to the Galkiriyagama Police, a police spokesman said.

The villagers said their main livelihood was farming and they had been attacked by the wild elephants since several years. Some had been killed while some others had been disabled due to the attacks. They requested the authorities to find a solution to the problem immediately. They requested the authorities to bring it to the attention of the present Wild Life Minister as their requests had fallen on deaf ears of the political authority in the past.

The villagers said that they would launch a struggle in the future if no quick solution was found to this problem.

The people who escaped from the attacks of the elephants narrated their experience about the attacks and one woman said that she had escaped death despite falling under the belly of an elephant.