Baby elephant Samadhi being taken to Pinnawala

The  baby elephant named ‘Samadhi’ in the custody of The Wildlife Department was being taken to the Pinnawela Elephant orphanage.

 Colombo Additional Magistrate recently ordered that the elephant  be taken into Wildlife Department custody, from the possession of suspect Samarappulige Niraj Roshan alias Ali Roshan, who is considered the mastermind behind the racket were illegally caught wild elephant calves are being sold to third parties.

The Additional Magistrate made this order taking into consideration the facts presented by Wild Life Department, CID and Counsel Aruna Laksiri who appeared for the Environmental and Cultural Studies Centre. They challenged in Court the former Magistrate’s order to release the elephant calf on a Rs.5 million bond in 2014.

The prosecutors alleged that the investigations have revealed that the Samarappulige Niraj Roshan alias Ali Roshan was directly involved in selling 39 wild elephants and the captured elephant calves being sold for a period of 15 years.