A departmental-level investigation has been ordered into the practice of outside groups being taken into forests alongside wildlife veterinarians to film elephants undergoing treatment.
Dr. Nihal Pushpakumara, president of the Wildlife and Zoo Veterinary Association, said the inquiry had been decided on, Hiru News reported. He was responding to allegations raised by environmentalists that the filming operates as a commercial racket.
Environmentalists say they suspect the footage is being sold and released online. According to the report, people taken into forests with the knowledge of wildlife veterinarians have filmed treatments given to elephants over an extended period, with several cameras used at sites where elephants injured in incidents were being treated.
The Kavantissa allegation
The report carries a more specific claim: that some of the steps taken by Department of Wildlife Conservation veterinarians to anaesthetise and treat the Kavantissa tusker were arranged in a way that made it easier to obtain video footage.
The investigation comes against a backdrop of existing questions about the department’s treatment methods following the death of Kavantissa, which had been shot. This desk has previously reported environmentalists naming two ministers and the President over the tusker’s death and villagers’ allegations of forced confessions in the related investigation.
A note on “CIA”
The allegations were broadcast on Thursday through Hiru’s in-house investigative strand, which the broadcaster brands “CIA”. This is a programme title belonging to the Sri Lankan network. It is not the United States Central Intelligence Agency, and no foreign agency is involved in this matter.
Not reported
The filing does not say who ordered the investigation, which officials or outside parties it covers, whether any veterinarian has been suspended or questioned, or when it is due to report. It does not identify the groups alleged to have filmed the footage, name any platform on which it was sold, or put a figure on the money said to have changed hands. The Department of Wildlife Conservation’s own response is not recorded.
Single verified source. The allegations originate in one broadcaster’s own investigative reporting; no other verified newsroom had filed on the departmental inquiry when this article was written.