A protest was held in Kandy on Sunday against the killing of the tusker Kavantissa and the continued shooting of wild elephants, with environmentalists joined by adults and young children.
Hiru News reported the demonstration from the city at 12.35 p.m., attributing the account to its own correspondent. Its headline describes the protest as taking place “again today” — indicating this is not an isolated gathering but the latest in a continuing run.
What the photograph shows
Hiru’s picture from the scene carries more than its two-sentence report does. The crowd is visibly mixed: schoolchildren in white T-shirts standing alongside older adults, one woman wearing a shirt printed with an elephant.
At the centre, two women hold a hand-lettered placard reading “දළ දෙක ගන්නද මෙහෙම කරේ ???” — “Was this done just to take the two tusks???”
That is the protesters’ own framing of the case, and it is sharper than anything in the written filing. It treats Kavantissa’s death not as human–elephant conflict, nor as an accident, but as a killing for ivory — and the question mark is directed at whoever ordered it rather than at whoever fired.
The case behind it
Kavantissa, among the largest tuskers in the country, died on 16 October while being treated for a gunshot wound to his right front leg, first seen in late September. Suspects were remanded at Mahawa, the Environment Ministry asked the police to investigate a possible organised network behind the shootings, and the President appointed a committee to examine the death.
The case has not settled since. At least six other elephants in the Anuradhapura district have been found with gunshot injuries, Parliament was told that 455 wild elephants were killed in 2025, and on the same day as this protest villagers near the scene alleged that suspects had been pressured into confessing.
That last point gives Sunday’s demonstration a second edge. Public pressure for arrests and a village complaint that arrests were coerced are now running side by side, and both are directed at the same investigation.
Not reported
The filing does not name the organisers, estimate the number who attended, give the location within Kandy or the duration, or say whether the protest was permitted or policed. It records no speeches, no stated list of demands and no response from the Department of Wildlife Conservation or the police.
It also does not say how many previous protests the word “again” refers to, or whether Sunday’s was connected to the earlier demonstrations this desk has reported.
This report rests on a single verified source. Hiru News is the only verified newsroom to have filed on the Kandy protest; a search of the Daily Mirror, NewsFirst, Island, Daily FT, Colombo Gazette and Daily News returned coverage of Kavantissa’s death and its investigation, but nothing on this demonstration. Ada Derana has returned a CloudFront error to this desk for 42 consecutive days and could not be checked.