Sri Lanka's elephants have been in serious trouble for years and are still being killed unnecessarily. Even though the elephant is protected under Sri Lankan law, the government is not providing long-term solutions to prevent elephant and human conflicts. Add to this the outrage that baby elephants in captivity are being abducted and sent to zoos - and those used in pageants are being abused.
According to Elephant Voices, conflicts with humans led to more than 50 people and 228 wild elephants being killed in one year alone. This number amounts to an estimated 5% of the remaining wild population. But the government’s solution to this problem, which includes putting up fences that cause elephants to starve, is not fixing anything.
The death of a magnificent tusker named "Parakrama" made headlines a few years ago after he was killed in the process of being transported in an unsafe vehicle. Afterward, reports International Elephant Foundation, Sri Lanka’s Department of Wildlife Conservation stopped the translocating of elephants. However, says IEF, there appear to be no definite long-term plans for management of one of Sri Lanka‘s greatest natural treasures.
The way in which elephants in the wild and in captivity are managed and cared for in Sri Lanka remains in desperate need of improvement. The survival of Sri Lanka's elephants depends upon the government developing long-term policies to protect wild elephants from land use conflicts and to stop the abduction of baby elephants and abuse of others in captivity.
Sign this petition to ask the Sri Lankan government to pass laws to stop the mismanagement and mistreatment of its treasured elephants - and make this a priority.
To Sri Lanka’s Department of Wildlife Conservation:
According to several reports, although your government has taken steps to address the unsafe methods of transporting elephants, by putting an end to translocation, it still has not developed long-term polices to deal with the deaths associated with human conflict.
International Elephant Foundation has characterized this problem as “the worst environmental and rural social economic crises in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka,” and says it is a result of 70% of the wild elephant population living «outside the Wildlife Protected Area network” and sharing «land with rural people.“ Other factors also indicate improper land use and management policies.
In addition to the deaths caused by these land-use conflicts, Earth Island Journal documents abuses of elephants used in pageants and religious ceremonies. EIJ criticizes the nation for this this kind of mistreatment of a creature it claims to revere.
Based on the fact that elephant advocacy groups have been documenting these problems for years, and still the government has failed to come up with long-term solutions, I, the undersigned, and those who support this petition ask that you make this issue of developing a long-term solution to the mismanagement and mistreatment of these treasured elephants a priority.
Thanks for your time.
