Body of another tusker found on Wednesday
The wildlife officials and police in Sri Lanka have found the buried carcass of a blind tusker after it went missing over two months ago.
The iconic tusker stood apart from others owing to its crossed tusks acquiring the name ‘Dala Puttuwa’ or the ‘jumbo with crossed tusks’. According to data there are 18 highly valuable tuskers in the sanctuary.
People in the surrounding area had seen an excavating machine and the tusks have been removed by using electric saws, according reports.
The disappearance of the 40-year-old elephant, the biggest tusker in the island, shocked the nation and there were frantic efforts to trace the whereabouts of the pachyderm that used to roam freely around Galgamuwa sanctuary. It was blind in both eyes as a result of gun shot wounds. A team of about 140 police and wild life officers was looking for the missing elephant for days in heavy rains.
Meanwhile, a woman in Karuwalagaswewa who went to the forest to pick firewood had found the body of another elephant of about 30 years old with tusks more than four feet long. The wildlife officers had removed its tusks but there were no reports of how this one died. Minister of Sustainable Development and Wildlife Gamini Jayawickrema Perera did not know about the incident until a TV crew which went to interview him revealed the details of the second grizzly find.
The killing of ‘Dala Puttuwa’ was discovered almost by accident when two suspects were arrested while in the possession of a pair of elephant tusks with ‘organic ivory’ inside. Known as ‘elephant pearls’ the hard formations inside the tusks are said to be very rare and expensive. The tusks recovered in Panadura, a city about 20 km south of Colombo, had the identical unique curvature of ‘Dala Puttuwa’.
The two suspects under custody are said to have arrived at Panadura with the tusks in a vehicle without the registration number.
A team of wildlife enthusiasts who went to meet a senior government official almost came to blows alleging the involvement of a key official in the wildlife department and demanding his dismissal.
The minister said the rotting body of an elephant found buried in the jungle had been identified as ‘Dala Putuwa’ from a gunshot injury on a leg it sustained sometime ago. The wildlife department does not maintain a data base of elephants’ DNA.
One of the arrested men is said to be a ‘Grama Seva Niladhari’ or a village officer. Another suspect is a dismissed police official while there are reports that there is also a Buddhist monk and an engineer who works at the Irrigation Department involved in the killing of the beast.
The ‘Dala Puttuwa’ acquired notoriety after it attacked a convoy of 46 vehicles on a remote highway in 2011 mainly due to blindness.
In 2011 wild life officials treated ‘Dala Puttuwa’ when it sustained gun shot injuries to its head and refused to eat. As it was difficult to sedate the animal which was hiding among the trees, the vets rolled medicated pumpkins and fruits towards the beast and managed to restore its health. Incidents of poaching for tusks are rare in Sri Lanka.
Another tusker was killed in 2011 as the floorboards of a lorry which was used to transport it for relocation gave way, killing the beast instantly. The wildlife officials had decided to relocate the elephant to a wild life sanctuary after it attacked people in the cultivation areas.
The biggest tusker living in the popular Yala Wild Life Sanctuary died last June when another elephant known as ’Thani Dalaya’ (Elephant with One Tusk) attacked it. There were reports that the sanctuary workers had used machetes to separate its head and take it away in the presence of several tourists. Some people had seen visitors taking selfies while sitting on the dead elephant’s body.
