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The treatment of leopards and elephants at the hands of the Department of Wild Life Conservation, a body which is supposed to be their protectors, is causing much concern to conservationists.

Take the recent slaughter and skinning of a leopard just outside the Yala National Park. “A gunshot had been heard in the early hours of the day in question about 300 yards, as the crow flies, from the current park office but no one took the trouble to investigate it, according to information we received,” says Dr. Ranjen Fernando, former President of the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society and UNEP Global 500 Laureate.

The Sunday Times understands that the next morning a cultivator living just outside the park had spotted the carcass of a leopard and passed on the information to a safari jeep driver who in turn informed park officials. “When finally the park officials went to see what had happened, they had found the leopard’s carcass close to the Palatupana wewa in Block 1 of Yala, just outside the boundary of the park,” said Dr. Fernando stressing that the normal procedure in such a situation would have been to carry out an autopsy and fill an ‘A’ form. An ‘A’ form is important to ascertain the cause of death of any animal in a protected area.

“According to the information we have, no immediate autopsy was conducted neither was an ‘A’ form filled out. The carcass was buried near the second culvert on the Pattiyawela Road in the park under the supervision of a Range Assistant,” says Dr. Fernando emphasizing that this was a protected animal and the incident had taken place near a protected area. The leopard is on the list of “threatened” animals. Was the leopard, an endangered species snared, trapped or shot dead? Who are the culprits? Did they poach in the Yala Park itself?

These are the questions that need answers and the Wildlife Department must ensure that these answers are forthcoming, says Dr. Fernando. (See the below text for the answer)

Was the leopard, an endangered species snared, trapped or shot dead? Who are the culprits? Did they poach in the Yala Park itself? These are the questions that need answers and the Wildlife Department must ensure that these answers are forthcoming, says Dr. Fernando.

Meanwhile, The Sunday Times learns that two elephant drives begun in July-August 2005 have ended in disaster nearly a year later. One drive was to guide a herd of about 25 elephants and two majestic tuskers from Kahalapallakele in the Kurunegala district towards the northwest to Wilpattu National Park.

The other was to drive a herd from the left bank of the Walawe towards Lunugamvehera, says Dr. Fernando adding that now the elephants are stranded in between and vulnerable not only to poachers but also to the human-elephant conflict.

The herd that was being driven to Wilpattu has backtracked and is roaming in the Galgamuwa area. They have not even reached the Thabbowa wewa. They have deviated from their route and without moving northwest have gone southwest.

The other has migrated towards Mattale in Suriyawewa, explained Dr. Fernando.

The two tuskers in Galgamuwa are in imminent danger of being shot by poachers or being trapped to be ultimately domesticated he warned, questioning whether the National Policy for the Conservation and Management of Wild Elephants was directed towards capturing wild elephants and not safeguarding them in the wild itself.

Refuting these allegations an official of the Galgamuwa wildlife office said, the drive was to take the elephants from Galgamuwa to the Thabbowa sanctuary adjoining the Wipattu National Park. “Already about 150 elephants are in the Thabbowa sanctuary behind an electric fence and would gradually find their way into Wilpattu,” he said however, conceding that in any elephant drive, a few animals would go hither and thither. “It has happened in this one too and about 15-20 elephants including two tuskers are roaming around with other tuskers in the area.

We are attempting to guide them to Thabbowa,” he said.

The Sunday Times was unable to check on the situation with regard to the Uda Walawe drive as the officer in charge was in the field and uncontactable.