Seven schoolboys were taken into custody and later released with a warning after a video circulated on social media showing a student throwing stones at a wild elephant in the Yahangala reserve, police said.
Hiru News reported that Ududumbara Police investigated after receiving a report through the 119 police emergency line about the footage, and arrested seven juvenile suspects on the evening of 6 November for unauthorised entry into the Yahangala reserve and for cruelty to an animal.
The seven are school students from the same area, aged 15, 16 and 17.
Police summoned their parents to the station, informed them of the offence, issued a warning and released the students.
Not reported
The filing does not say who recorded or posted the video, when the incident itself took place, or whether the elephant was injured. It does not name the school, and the students are not identified — all are minors. It does not report whether the Department of Wildlife Conservation was notified or whether it is taking any separate action, and does not say whether any charge was filed in court or whether the warning concludes the matter.
This report rests on a single verified newsroom.
Context
Entering a forest reserve without authorisation and harming a wild elephant are both offences under Sri Lankan law, and elephants are protected under the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance. Yahangala lies in the Ududumbara area of the Kandy district, in hill country where settlements sit close to forest and encounters between people and elephants are routine — the same divisional secretariat area has been under a second-stage landslide warning this week.
Human-elephant conflict remains one of Sri Lanka’s most persistent wildlife problems. Official figures recorded 180 wild elephant deaths in the first seven months of the year, and enforcement has followed viral footage before, including the arrest of a drone operator who harassed an elephant at Kasikote. An army sergeant was killed in an elephant attack in Ampara this week.
