Sri Lanka’s High Court yesterday sentenced an elephant keeper to 15 years in prison, in a landmark case involving trafficking of wildlife protected by strict environmental laws.
The three-judge court in Colombo found keeper Niraj Roshan guilty on two counts of keeping a stolen baby elephant and falsifying records to show he had obtained it legitimately.
The verdict, which includes a fine equivalent to US$68,600 and the elephant’s confiscation, comes six years after the case first went to court.
Photo: AFP
“This is the first case of elephant trafficking filed in a Sri Lankan court,” a state prosecutor said, urging a deterrent sentence to discourage similar behavior.
Seven other suspects were cleared during the course of the trial due to lack of evidence.
When the case was filed, wildlife experts estimated that about 40 baby elephants had been stolen from their herds over a decade and sold for about US$125,000 each.
The practice largely stopped when a new government took office in 2015 and launched a crackdown.
Former Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa had several other elephant theft cases dropped, but the charges against Roshan proceeded.
Rajapaksa himself kept two baby elephants at his official residence when he served in his elder brother’s administration from 2005 to 2015.
Among Sri Lanka’s super rich, owning a baby elephant is considered the ultimate status symbol, and the animals were traditionally kept by aristocrats.
They continue to be paraded at temple festivals.
The illegal trade in calves has been blamed for a decline in Sri Lanka’s elephant population, with conservationists saying that mothers are often killed so their young could be captured.
Escalating human-elephant conflict has also claimed about 400 elephants and 200 human lives annually over the past five years.
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