The Wildlife Department will deploy teams of officers to prevent wild elephants from invading the Sooriyawewa Cricket Stadium when Sri Lanka hosts Zimbabwe for a series of one-day internationals at the Hambantota stadium.
Experts will be on hand for all three ODI games at the 35,000-capacity stadium, which is next to an elephant sanctuary, a wildlife official told AFP on Monday.
"There had been a few instances when elephants broke through the fence and invaded the pitch at night," said the official, who asked not to be named.
"A jungle patch starts about 100 metres from the stadium and we are deploying 10 wardens to make sure that fans don't stray into that area and provoke the elephants," he told AFP by telephone from Hambantota.
He said there was a herd of about 25 elephants roaming the area, 240 kilometres (150 miles) south of Colombo, posing a potential threat to fans.
AFP
A Sri Lankan man was apprehended at Suvarnabhumi airport for attempting to smuggle wildlife out of the country after three ball pythons were found hidden in his underwear, the Bangkok post reported.
Read these and more on tomorrow’s edition of the Sunday Times
Leave Comments