Jumbo find in the legal section of the Wildlife Dept.
The elephant registry that went missing some years ago surfaced yesterday but was found to be heavily tampered with, with several pages missing and vital details erased.
The registry that had been under lock and key in the legal section of the Wildlife Department was made public to media personnel by Wildlife Deputy Minister Wasantha Senanayake.
Western Province Wildlife Deputy Director W.P.A.U. Indrajith and officials of the legal section were also present at the time of the revelation.
Most of the photographs of animals were missing from the registry while correction fluid had been used to hide information such as the ages and dates of birth of the elephants. On some pages, new sheets of paper had been pasted on top of the original entries in the registry.
Mr. Senanayake said while an independent investigation was underway to find out how such tampering had occurred, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) too would be asked to conduct a probe. He said the culprits would have to face legal action.
“We will get to the bottom of this and find out who was responsible for tampering with official documents,” he said.