An islandwide operation placing soldiers alongside wildlife officers in the field to protect wild elephants began on Monday at Galkiriyagama, in the North-Western Wildlife Zone. The operation is named ‘Hasthi Sena’ — Elephant Force.
It is being run jointly by the Ministry of Environment, the armed forces and the Department of Wildlife Conservation, the Daily Mirror reported and Hiru News reported in matching terms.
Scale and command
Environment Minister Dr. Dammika Patabendi said the initial phase would focus on 17 elephants currently facing threats.
Sixty military personnel have been deployed, organised into 10 operational teams across six groups. The operation runs islandwide under the direct supervision of Army Commander Lieutenant General Nilantha Premaratne.
The Minister said plans are underway to cover around 80 per cent of areas inhabited by elephants through the operation, with the remaining 20 per cent addressed through a separate initiative. Neither filing describes what that separate initiative is.
Also at the launch were North-Western Wildlife Director Pushpantha Wimaladasa, Environment Ministry adviser Ravindra Kariyawasam, Major General Kaminda Silva of the Army’s 21 Division, 212 Brigade Commander Brigadier Basnayake and Lieutenant Colonel Abeywickrama.
Day one: seizures at Kala Wewa
By Monday evening the operation had produced its first enforcement results. A large quantity of illegal items — unauthorised firearms, ammunition, animal traps and hakka-patas, the explosive-laden baits that detonate in an animal’s mouth — was seized in the Kala Wewa area, the Daily Mirror reported separately.
The seized items include firearms capable of killing elephants and other wild animals. They are to be produced before the Kekirawa Magistrate’s Court. Those arrested and the seized items will be handed to the relevant authorities for action under the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance.
Authorities said raids would continue against illegal firearms, hakka-patas, unauthorised electric fences and animal traps.
This is the plan from October, now in the field
The operation is the first visible deployment under an arrangement agreed at the Environment Ministry on 23 October, when a joint wildlife operations room was established at Army Headquarters and the military took on a standing role in elephant protection.
That agreement set out training, shared facilities and special detachments to monitor vulnerable tuskers — but gave no start date, no personnel numbers and no figure for how many elephants had been identified as at risk. Monday’s launch supplies all three: 2 November, 60 personnel, 17 elephants.
Context
The operation follows a sustained run of elephant killings. Parliament was told in October that 455 wild elephants died in 2025. The tusker Kavantissa was shot dead on 16 October, and a tusker was found dead at Kahatagasdigiliya on 1 November with its left tusk cut away.
Hiru’s filing notes that the Department of Wildlife Conservation has opened an investigation into that Kahatagasdigiliya carcass, found in scrub beside a paddy field adjoining the Kayangollewa tank in Meeminnawala, and that police, army intelligence and wildlife officers are working to arrest those responsible.
A naming inconsistency worth recording
The three filings describe the military partner three different ways: the Daily Mirror’s launch report says “the Armed Forces”, its seizures report says “the Sri Lanka Army”, and Hiru’s Sinhala says ත්රිවිධ හමුදාව — the Tri-Forces. The named officers are all Army. Whether the navy and air force are formally party to the operation is not established by any of the three. The Daily Mirror also spells the ministry adviser’s name two ways across its own two filings — Ravindra and Ravinda Kariyawasam.
Not reported
None of the filings gives a budget, a duration, or an end date. None names the 17 elephants or says where they are. None states how many people were arrested at Kala Wewa, or how many weapons were recovered. None explains the legal basis on which soldiers participate in wildlife enforcement, or what powers they hold.
Neither filing says why the launch took place in the North-Western Wildlife Zone, nor which areas fall into the 20 per cent the operation will not cover.