A 44-year-old man from Poonani has been arrested inside the Wadumuna Reserve in the Welikanda Police Division for allegedly killing an elephant with a locally-manufactured firearm and cutting the carcass into pieces, Newswire reported.
Police said the arrest was made on Tuesday (9) evening after officers, acting on intelligence, entered the reserve and surrounded the suspect. He was found in possession of a pair of elephant tusks and the firearm suspected to have been used in the killing.
Investigations indicate that the elephant had been killed some time before the operation. The suspect is scheduled to be produced before the Polonnaruwa Magistrate’s Court.
The arrest is the latest in a sustained campaign against wildlife poaching in Sri Lanka’s central conflict belt. The Department of Wildlife Conservation has been tracking surging human-elephant conflict casualties on both sides, with 128 wild elephant deaths and 35 human fatalities recorded between January and mid-May — 20 of the elephants killed in shootings. Polonnaruwa remains one of the three core conflict zones alongside Anuradhapura and the broader Eastern Region. The arrest also comes a day after Environment Minister Dammika Patabendi announced that the 2024 nationwide elephant survey put the wild population at 7,451 animals.
