Seven adult Asian elephants, including a pregnant female, have been found dead in several areas of Sri Lanka. The country’s wildlife department announced this, adding that the search for other possible specimens is still ongoing. The animals showed no signs of being attacked by predators or even gunshot wounds. The authorities suspect that they were poisoned for trespassing on the territory occupied by the farmland and for this reason they have arranged anautopsy on the bodies of the animals.
Difficult coexistence
In Sri Lanka, coexistence between humans and pachyderm has always been a problem: attempts to expand urban areas of the Sri Lankan population are opposed by the reduction of natural areas available to elephants. The large mammal, in the wild, is driven by its instinct to defend the territory and the herd. This conservative disposition leads to the deaths of about 50 peopleevery year, killed by the charges of the pachydermes who destroy the villages.
5,000 fewer specimens in the last century
To date there are 7,000 Asian elephants – much smaller than their African cousins – that populate Sri Lanka. At the beginning of the 20th century there were about 12,000. The number of deaths has increased over the years despite the harsh laws that punish poachers: the death of an elephant in Sri Lanka is punishable even with the death penalty.
