News
Night of high drama at Minneriya Park; vehicle chase follows reported bid to abduct baby elephant
View(s):The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) has lodged two complaints with the Habarana Police against obstruction of duty and threats to employees early yesterday, while also filing a fact report with the Kekirawa Magistrate over an incident allegedly linked to the abduction of a baby elephant at the Minneriya National Park.
It had been a night of high drama on Friday when the DWC set up several check-points on a tip-off that a group may be attempting to grab a wild baby elephant from the park.
The Sunday Times understands that wildlife officials had intercepted two vehicles accessing the main road close to the Habarana town through a wel-yaya bordering the buffer zone of the park. This had been in the Eerige Oya area where usually the roads through the wel-yaya are used by tractors.
Complaint CIB2/138/218/2 had been lodged at around 1 a.m. yesterday and complaint CIB2/145/219 at around 4 a.m. by the DWC, while another group has also lodged a counter-complaint that the DWC was attempting to bring disrepute to it.
Information from many sources to reconstruct the events of that night pointed to a vehicle chase by DWC officials of the suspect vehicles which had sped off, passing through several checkpoints of the security forces.
The chase had taken place from Habarana through Maradankadawala, Tirappene, Galkulama to Anuradhapura town.
Later, the group which fled the DWC vehicles had reportedly returned to Ganewalpola and Palugasweva to threaten the DWC officials and also harass others in vehicles such as lorries passing by, to see whether the incident had been videoed
Whether a baby elephant was grabbed from the wilds could not be confirmed. Elephants are a protected species under the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance, while national parks are nature reserves for the protection of animals and governed by strict rules and regulations.
Prior to 2015, when the DWC seized, by order of court, numerous baby elephants that were being kept without proper documentation/permits, it was found that many of these babies had been illegally captured from the Habarana area.
The 8,889–hectare Minneriya National Park, in the North Central Province is the ‘scene’ of a unique world event dubbed ‘The Gathering’. Between June and September, with the dry season setting in, more than 300 wild elephants with lots of babies gambolling around, gather to feast on the tender shoots of grass which come up on the Minneriya tank-bed, as the waters recede.