A raid at Kala Wewa North under Operation ‘Hasthi Sena’ has recovered firearms, ammunition and poaching equipment, while a separate inspection by the 57th Infantry Division found scores of unauthorised electric fences around villages near Nelliya.
Both were reported by the Daily Mirror on 4 November, in two separate filings.
The Kala Wewa North seizure
The raid was carried out jointly by the Sri Lanka Army and the Department of Wildlife Conservation. Recovered items were firearms, cartridges, ammunition, gunpowder, snares and hakka-patas — the explosive-laden baits that detonate in an animal’s mouth.
Animal meat and deer antlers were also found, indicating the equipment was in active use rather than merely held.
A date the filing does not give
This report carries a Colombo dateline of 4 November but does not state when the raid took place, and its location overlaps with ground already reported. Seizures of firearms, ammunition, traps and hakka-patas at Kala Wewa were reported on the operation’s first day, 2 November.
The two accounts are not identical — this one specifies Kala Wewa North and adds gunpowder, snares, animal meat and deer antlers, while the earlier one named the Kekirawa Magistrate’s Court, the minister and the deployment numbers. Whether this is a second raid in the same area or a fuller account of the first cannot be established from the filing, and the Daily Mirror does not say. It is recorded here as reported.
The 57th Division joins
Separately and unambiguously on 4 November, the 57th Infantry Division joined the operation to identify unauthorised electric fences put up by villagers to protect property from wild elephants.
The Army and wildlife officials inspected Valgala, Uthuruwella, Ahugoda, Polwatthayaya and Puhulyaya, villages near Nelliya and Kumbukgete, within the area of responsibility of the 571st Infantry Brigade.
Officials found around 50 to 60 houses ringed by locally built electric fences that did not meet required standards. The fences were not connected to the mains at the time of inspection, but officials noted they could be connected whenever wanted.
Villagers said wild elephants had not entered the area for about a month and a half, but usually came during the harvest season.
Wildlife officials told residents to obtain departmental approval before installing electric fences and to meet the required standards and legal provisions. The department also plans awareness programmes with Divisional Secretaries and Grama Niladharis.
Context
‘Hasthi Sena’ — Elephant Force — began on 2 November at Galkiriyagama in the North-Western Wildlife Zone, with 60 military personnel in ten teams and an initial focus on 17 elephants identified as at risk. Snares were seized at Namal Uyana on 3 November.
The electric-fence inspection marks a shift in the operation’s targets. Its seizures so far have been aimed at poaching equipment; unauthorised fences are put up by villagers defending crops and homes, which is a different problem with a different remedy — and one the department is answering with approvals and awareness rather than prosecution.
Not reported
Neither filing reports arrests, at Kala Wewa North or at the villages inspected. Neither states how many weapons were recovered, what species the meat and antlers came from, or which court the items will be produced before. Neither says whether any action will be taken over the substandard fences, or who commands the 57th Division element involved. Both filings are by the same newsroom, and no other verified outlet had carried either account at the time of writing.