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ANIMAL rights activists are challenging a Sri Lankan court order that they say will incentivise elephant-trafficking.
Under the September 6 order, 14 elephants that were among 38 baby animals seized by wildlife officials in 2015 can be returned to their owners, but rights groups say that those owners bought the elephants from illegal traders.
Today, lawyer Ravindranath Dabare charged that the order is based on a government decree that violates environmental laws.
The capture and sale of wild elephants is illegal, but campaigners say that there is little enforcement of the ban, with wealthy owners who will have elephants returned to them including a judge and a senior Buddhist monk.
Conservationist Rukshan Jayawardene said that the order would lead to a revival of trafficking. “Elephants are going to be captured again, the same way they were captured previously,” he said.
And environmentalist Sajeewa Chamikara said that under previous regulations, owners had to submit an elephant’s pedigree to have it registered, but new regulations dispense with this rule, allowing illegally obtained elephants to be “legalised.”
