Environmentalists say that the country’s wildlife, including elephants, is facing a serious threat due to the statement made by Agriculture Minister K.D. Lal Kantha that wild animals coming to their farmlands should do whatever they want.
Environmentalists point out that the minister’s statement encourages the killing of animals and encourages people to violate the existing law in Sri Lanka.
Commenting on this, environmental conservationist and researcher Supun Lahiru Prakash says that even the lives of elephants are under serious threat due to this statement. According to the current legal situation, killing an elephant is an offense that carries a serious penalty, and therefore farmers shoot elephants in the hind legs to drive them away. But with Minister Lal Kantha’s statement, they will be afraid to kill elephants, he says.
Expressing further views, he said: “Wildlife-human conflict is a long-term problem and there are no quick and easy solutions to it. Governments should look at this issue scientifically. The government is the institution that is responsible for and protects not only humans but all other living beings. Therefore, the conservation of human crops as well as wildlife is also the responsibility of the government.”
Environmentalists point to the current government’s transfer of wildlife-human conflict management from the Department of Wildlife Conservation to the Ministry of Agriculture as the beginning of this problem.
They are urging the minister to immediately withdraw this statement, as this statement is not only against the country’s Constitution and the Wildlife and Flora Protection Ordinance, but also against the policy statement of the National People’s Power.