The tusker Agbo, the subject of a two-day military search last weekend, was sighted on Monday afternoon in the Nachchaduwa Tank Reserve in good health and in musth, the Daily Mirror reports — and he is one of several elephants now under wildlife care across the country.
The filing, published at 7.24 a.m., says wildlife officials and military personnel spotted Agbo together. Officers at Thirappane continue to monitor him closely.
This closes a question this desk has carried since Sunday
Our report on the search for Agbo ended with an unresolved point: the Daily Mirror had called Agbo “injured” without saying how, how badly, or when — and NewsFirst, filing forty minutes later, did not mention an injury at all.
Today’s filing supplies the missing context, and it is historical rather than current. Agbo, popularly known as the Thirappane elephant, “recovered several years ago after receiving treatment from wildlife veterinarians and officials following a gunshot injury that left it in critical condition in the Thirappane area.” That is an old wound, already healed. His present condition is described as good, with musth — a period of heightened hormonal activity in male elephants — accounting for the ranging that made him hard to locate.
Three animals under care
The Daily Mirror lists the current cases:
- A sick elephant calf at Wewalketiya in Pihiniyagollewa, Anuradhapura, receiving round-the-clock care from wildlife officers, with treatment to continue.
- A male elephant of about 12 years that fell ill and collapsed in a paddy field at Gallalla, in the Polonnaruwa Flood Plains National Park. Veterinarians Sameera Kalinguarachchi and Dinusha de Silva of the Giritale Wildlife Veterinary Centre treated it on 18 October; Polonnaruwa division officers are supplying food and water.
- Agbo himself, monitored at Thirappane.
An internal investigation into Kavantissa’s treatment
Separately, Director General of Wildlife Ranjan Marasinghe says an internal independent investigation is under way into the allegation that veterinarians were negligent in treating the tusker Kavantissa, NewsFirst reported at 8.36 a.m.
Marasinghe also said steps are being taken to obtain Sri Lanka Army support to protect wild elephants and tuskers. That is the first indication that the military involvement seen in the Agbo search is being put on a standing footing rather than treated as a one-off deployment.
Not reported
Neither filing says who raised the negligence allegation, who is conducting the independent investigation, or when it will report. Neither states what the Army’s protection role would involve, under what authority, or whether it has been approved. Neither gives a cause for the two sick animals now under treatment, and neither connects them to Kavantissa’s death beyond the sequence in which they were reported.
