{"id":118958,"date":"2021-10-06T17:11:14","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T00:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=118958"},"modified":"2021-10-06T17:11:14","modified_gmt":"2021-10-07T00:11:14","slug":"the-elephant-in-sri-lanka-part-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/10\/06\/the-elephant-in-sri-lanka-part-10\/","title":{"rendered":"THE ELEPHANT IN SRI LANKA Part 10"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Regulations\non the registration of tame elephants were first issued in the Registration and\nLicensing of Tuskers and Elephants Regulations, 1991 published in the Gazette\nExtraordinary No. 662\/4 of 14 May 1991 in accordance with Sections 71 and 22a\nof the Wildlife Conservation Ordinance. In this gazette elephants are not\nallowed to be used for work or tourism. Every licence issued under this gazette\nstated that these animals can only be used for cultural activities, including\nprocessions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2014, Minister\nof Wildlife Resources Conservation had submitted a Cabinet Memorandum to update\nthe 1991 Orders under the title “Preparation of Regulations on\nRegistration and Maintenance of Tame Elephants”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016,\nMinister of Sustainable Development and Wildlife, prepared a series of\ndirectives to regularize the registration of elephants and to provide\nprotection and improvement and submitted them to the Cabinet. The Ordinance did\nnot mention the use of the animals for work, nor mentioned their use for\ntourism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then on August\n19, 2021, an extraordinary gazette on Protection, Wellbeing and Regularisation\nof Registration of Tamed Elephants Regulations No. 1 of 2021 was published.\nThese orders were issued in accordance with Sections 71 and 22A of the Wildlife\nConservation Ordinance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Under the first part of this three-part\nseries, orders have been issued for the protection and welfare of tame elephant,\nthe second part to regulate the registration of tame elephants and the third\npart to obtain tame elephants for historical and cultural processions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new gazette is an improvement of the\nprevious gazette and has some features that help elephants, said Jayantha\nJayawardena. These include registration of elephants, numbering, and\nmicrochips. We wanted to microchip tame elephants earlier so that they could be\nidentified but it was sabotaged. The new law provides for control <\/p>\n\n\n\n

. The new gazette is beneficial to elephants\nif it is implemented. The law has been there all this time but not implemented\nJayantha said. Later there could be another gazette that is better than this. We must remember that we have to work within\na framework of politicization.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the animal rights fraternity has\nfrowned upon several clauses which seem to be causing more harm than good for\nelephants, which ideally belong in the wild. They have raised\nconcerns over a few loosely drafted clauses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gazette states \u2018reasonable steps using\nminimum force in keeping with traditional methods could be taken to control an\nelephant that behaves violently\u2019. Who would determine \u2018minimum force\u2019 and\n\u2018unnecessary pain\u2019 asked the NGOs. This clause looks like an attempt to justify\na certain level of abuse and torture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier,\nlimitations were imposed on using elephants for advertisements, tourism-related\nactivities, carrying people etc. the gazette seems to be legalizing some of\nthese activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nuse of the bullhook and knife has also been made legal in this gazette.The\npointed bullhook is an instrument of harm and torture. The traditional bull\nhook had a globular edge that added pressure to an elephant\u2019s pressure points\nwas more friendly. But now, this friendly instrument has been made illegal and\nthe more damaging one has been legalized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These gazetted regulations do more harm to elephants than\nhelp,\u201d  said Rally for Animals Rights and\nEnvironment (RARE).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  Part 1 on \u2018Regulations for\nProtection and wellbeing of tamed elephants\u2019 are just loose and vague sentences\nwithout definitions and have no legal enforceability. The use of such imprecise\nterminology leaves many of these regulations open to the cruelest of\ninterpretations and effectively renders them useless. On the other hand, no\npenalties or punishments have been stipulated. These rules have been  drafted by those who seek to exploit and\nprofit from elephants<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RARE thinks hat Tame Elephant Owners Association was behind these\nregulations. The Association  has  no interest in elephant welfare but of\nincreasing the number of captive elephants and use them for commercial purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the gazette states that that an application for obtaining tame\nelephants for any temple or devalaya where a historical or cultural procession\nis organised should be submitted to the Tame Elephant Owners’ Association and\nrecommended to the Commissioner of Buddhist Affairs and subject to the approval\nof the Secretary to the Ministry in charge of the subject on his\nrecommendation. .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rally for Animals Rights and Environment\n(RARE) said the new gazette will \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • Exempt perahera from these regulations\nas well as any other animal welfare laws,<\/li>
  • Legally accept traditional methods of\nelephant control without defining what they are.<\/li>
  • Give authority over registration\nprocess to Tame Elephant Association and Ministry of Buddhasasana, two bodies\nthat have vested interest. it will dilute powers of Director Generals of DWC\nand DNZG<\/li>
  • Give Ministry of Buddhasasana sole\napproving authority over gifting captive elephants in the custody of DWC and\nNZG Department to temples. These include 88 Zoo\/ Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage\nelephants, 37 Court object elephants.<\/li>
  • Help elephant smugglers to register\ntheir illegal elephants by giving provisions to register any unregistered\nelephants they have in possession <\/li>
  • There were serious concerns about wild\nbaby elephants meant to be released at Udawalawe ETH as there have been\noccasions where ETH elephant calves have been gifted to the army and temples by\nchanging custody. <\/li>
  • Revive and legally recognize elephant\nriding, towing vehicles and pulling weight using elephants, and mandate the\nlowest and cruelest standards for the like mandate the howdah or saddle for\nriding and traditional mouthpieces for logging. <\/li>
  • Deceive the eco-friendly foreign travelers that have been avoiding\nSri Lanka\u2019s captive elephant attractions due to the cruelty that have been\nexposed. ( continued) <\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    KAMALIKA PIERIS Regulations on the registration of tame elephants were first issued in the Registration and Licensing of Tuskers and Elephants Regulations, 1991 published in the Gazette Extraordinary No. 662\/4 of 14 May 1991 in accordance with Sections 71 and 22a of the Wildlife Conservation Ordinance. In this gazette elephants are not allowed to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118958","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=118958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}