(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Sri Lanka has sought assistance from the World Bank (WB) to conserve its wild elephant population, an official has said.
Sri Lanka boasts of 6,000 wild elephants, a major tourist attraction in the island nation.
W S K Pathiratne, director general, wildlife conservation department, told Xinhua news agency that another nationwide census would be conducted at the end of the year to estimate the total number of jumbos in the wild. The last was done in 2011.
'We found 5,789 elephants in the wild. It is a high number. It might have increased by now, he said.
Wild elephants are scattered throughout the country. But they are found mostly in the dry zone.
'With the increase of the number, the country also faces the increased incidence of human-elephant conflict. We have worked out a plan for the conservation of elephants while protecting human habitats as well, he added.
In the island nation, an elephant in the backyard has long been a sign of wealth, privilege and power. Though capturing wild elephants has been banned for decades and registration records indicate there should be only 127 elephants in captivity — most of them older — young elephants are a common sight in Sri Lanka's 400 or so Buddhist religious processions and traditionalceremonies every year.
Success of a religious procession is measured by the number of parading elephants.
For Buddhists, who make up 70% of the country's 20mn people, elephants are believed to have been servants of the Buddha.
In the last two years, the government has confiscated 39 elephants whose owners produced either false permits or none at all. Some had paid as much as $200,000 per captured animal when a previous government was in office, according to the wildlife ministry. It would suggest the authorities had either turned a blind eye to the racket or sold fake licences.
The Sri Lankan elephant is one of three subspecies of Asian elephant and is found only in Sri Lanka. In the 19th century, there were believed to be up to 14,000. That number fell to fewer than 3,000 before hunting and capture were banned.
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