{"id":102987,"date":"2020-05-30T15:28:32","date_gmt":"2020-05-30T22:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=102987"},"modified":"2020-05-30T15:28:32","modified_gmt":"2020-05-30T22:28:32","slug":"sri-lanka-has-now-become-the-killing-fields-of-rare-and-exotic-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/05\/30\/sri-lanka-has-now-become-the-killing-fields-of-rare-and-exotic-animals\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka has now become the killing fields of rare and exotic animals"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong data-rich-text-format-boundary=\"true\">Senaka Weeraratna<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Sri Lanka has now become the\nkilling fields of rare and exotic animals<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is no end in sight for\npoor animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"431\" height=\"645\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Leopard-Photo-R.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-102988\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Leopard-Photo-R.jpg 431w, https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Leopard-Photo-R-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 431px) 100vw, 431px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Last year ( 2019) alone 384\nelephants died mostly at the hands of humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The British killed 10, 000\nwild elephants during the heyday&nbsp;of the British Raj.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-wordpress wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-lankaweb-com\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"4bhOGwWiVR\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/03\/24\/holocaust-of-elephants-by-the-british-raj-in-sri-lanka\/\">Holocaust of elephants by the British Raj in Sri Lanka<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Holocaust of elephants by the British Raj in Sri Lanka&#8221; &#8212; LankaWeb.com\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/03\/24\/holocaust-of-elephants-by-the-british-raj-in-sri-lanka\/embed\/#?secret=8jDQy9ToKl#?secret=4bhOGwWiVR\" data-secret=\"4bhOGwWiVR\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>With a dwindling number &#8211;&nbsp;only 3000 elephants living in the country today,\nit is only a matter of time say within 10 to 20 years before the last elephant\nbecomes extinct in Sri Lanka.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then elephants will exist only in cyberspace\u00a0to remind posterity of the rich wildlife heritage we had.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No one except a handful is worried about the plight of elephants and other animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They like the Black Leopard\nwhich died yesterday (May 29) die cursing the inhumanity of human beings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Has a curse fallen on Sri Lanka?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We need strong moral leadership in the country similar to the one offered by Mahatma Gandhi of India, that will give voice to the voiceless and articulate the pain and suffering of innocent animals, and restore to them their dignity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Senaka\nWeeraratna<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senaka Weeraratna Sri Lanka has now become the killing fields of rare and exotic animals There is no end in sight for poor animals. Last year ( 2019) alone 384 elephants died mostly at the hands of humans. The British killed 10, 000 wild elephants during the heyday&nbsp;of the British Raj. With a dwindling number [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crimes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102987\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}