Hailing from Ratnapura’s interior, Gamini worked as a construction worker. He earned about Rs. 1,200 on the days he worked. With a family to look after and loans to pay, the curfew imposed to restrict movement aiming to stop the spread of Covid-19, came as a blow.
“I have an uncle who sold bushmeat. With him I started to hunt together,” Gamini told the Sunday Observer.
Bushmeat, especially of wild boar, is popular among men in his village who gather during evenings for a drink despite the country-wide curfew.
The curfew that came into effect in March is still in place in high-risk areas, while in other parts, it is eased during the day time. Construction work has stopped and Gamini does not have work.
According to statistics by the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC), 39 people have been arrested from April 1, 2020, to May 1, 2020, over wildlife and forest crimes within national parks and other protected areas. Another 25 arrests were made for illegal poaching.
DWC spokesperson Hasini Sarachchandra said rangers and wildlife officers of the Department have intensified raids. She said 99 percent of the 1,000 ranger and wildlife officers are on field duty these days.
“There is a possibility that poachers are taking advantage of the curfew. But due to the ban on inter-district travel, there won’t be a large market for bushmeat as transport is a problem. But there may be a demand for local consumption of bushmeat,” environmental scientist Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya, who is also a former Director-General of the DWC, said.
He added that with low visitation in National Parks resulting in less movement within parks, there is an opportunity for poachers.
“This could make wildlife more vulnerable,” he said.
“But we must keep in mind that the DWC is short-staffed. They have around 2,300 employees, but requests have been made to increase their cadres to 3,500. There is a lack of rangers,” he said.
The DWC relied on the military and the Special Task Force to
conduct raids. “But now with the military supporting the Government’s Covid-19 response, I am not sure whether the DWC can get the support they need,” Dr. Pilapitiya said.
Poachers, most often, hunt to put food on their tables. The Covid-19 pandemic has catapulted them into a battle to survive.
In a bid to aid daily wage earners, the Government is giving away a grant of Rs. 5000 per family.
Vegetable and fruit farmers find it difficult to sell their produce. Transportation costs have also increased during the curfew time. Tomato farmer Udaya Nawaratne, from Haputale, said he had to throw away over 10 tons of his harvest from March till May 8.
“One of the reasons why people have resorted to poaching is because they do not have their jobs.
That is why we see more poaching,” environmentalist and Executive Director of the Centre for Environmental Justice Hemantha Withanage said.
His organisation has received over 18 complaints regarding wildlife and forest crimes. Withanage said the number could be the tip of the iceberg.
As the outbreak of Covid-19 has prompted the Government to use most of its resources to tackle its spread, other areas, such as wildlife conservation have slipped through the cracks,” Withanage said.
Other threats the environmentalists flagged were sand mining and clearing of forests for cultivation purposes.
Baby elephant found shot dead
A baby elephant was found shot dead in the Udawalawe National Park on May 2.
Several years ago, the same elephant calf was brought to the Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home for treatment for a gunshot wound.
The young tusker had been found shot in Pokunutenna in the Udawalawe National park. First treated at the Pokunutenna Circuit Bungalow, he was moved to the transit home for further treatment where he was affectionately named ‘Pokuna’ by the staff. The elephant calf was nursed back to health by the staff of the Department of Wildlife (DWC) and Pokuna was eventually released back to the wild.
But in March 2019, the guns once again found Pokuna. This time his condition was worse than before.
The gunshot wounds to his head had left him paralyzed and it was only the untiring efforts of the DWC veterinary staff that helped Pokuna to survive. The recovered Pokuna was once again released to the wild, fitted with an identification collar.
The baby tusker was found dead on May 2 by the DWC staff that had labored to save his life on previous occasions. According to environmental lawyer and activist Jagath Gunawardena, the DWC should be strengthened to curb wildlife crimes.
The strengthening of the DWC should be fourfold, Gunawardena told the Sunday Observer. “If the Sri Lankan DWC is to be effective as perhaps the Kenyan Wildlife Service these issues must be addressed,” he said.
Firstly, according to Gunawardena, it is vital the DWC gets more manpower. “The manpower in the Department is woefully inadequate,” he said adding that it is insufficient to even protect species within protected areas. According to him the meagre force of 1,000 officers on the ground are not able to protect the species within the massive landmass which the DWC is responsible for.
Next Gunawardena said the staff of the DWC is in need of more equipment. “For example, they are in need of cabs in order to pursue these poachers,” he said. The DWC staff also need more advanced and modern firearms as the poachers too now have advanced weapons he added.
“They also need more training including firearm training” he said an added that other training, should also be enhanced such as to increase the prosecution abilities of the staff.
Finally, Gunawardena said that better coordination between the DWC and other agencies is also needed to curb wildlife crimes. He said that the existing laws are sufficient to punish those who commit Wildlife offences and it is the enforcement that is the weak point. “Some may blame the DWC but they are doing their maximum with the minimum they have been given,” he said. According to Gunawardena, therefore, addressing these issues is pertinent to assist the DWC in protecting the Wildlife in Sri Lanka.
Human-elephant conflict
The human-elephant conflict is continuing even amid the Covid-19 pandemic. A villager at Kohombakadawala in Mahawa which suffered an elephant rampage recently said, “We continue to suffer due to this issue.” Several houses were damaged in the village when an elephant went on a rampage around 3 am in search of rice stocked in farmers’ homes.
“Agriculture is a sector that has been least affected by curfew because the Government has permitted farmers to tend to their crops even during the curfew. But as long as there are crops in the fields and crop-raiding by elephants continues, elephants are not safe,” environmental scientist Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya said.
He said that in order for the elephants to be safe, the human-elephant conflict has to be addressed ‘comprehensively’. Pilot projects are under way in the Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Trincomalee and Hambantota Districts, Pilapitiya said. He said representatives from 13 African countries visited pilot site to learn from these experiences.