A suspect was fined Rs. 150,000 for attempting to sell antlers of protected wildlife species in the Kotte area, the Department of Wildlife Conservation said on Friday.
The arrest followed a joint raid carried out on May 2 by officers attached to the Hikkaduwa National Park Headquarters and the Bellanwila-Attidiya Wildlife Office, acting on intelligence provided by the Sri Lanka Air Force. Officers seized antlers of deer and sambhur that had been prepared for sale at Rs. 200,000.
The suspect and the seized items were produced before the Nugegoda Magistrate’s Court, which imposed the Rs. 150,000 fine.
Under the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance, possessing, transporting, displaying or selling any part of a protected wild animal is illegal. The Department urged members of the public to report individuals in possession of such animal parts via the 1992 wildlife emergency hotline.
The use of Air Force intelligence to support a wildlife enforcement operation in the Western Province is unusual but consistent with the broader interagency model the Department has been deploying since the Galewela arrests in March, where similar deer-trophy seizures were recorded, and with the Yala Block Two arrests where the Special Task Force led the operation.
Sri Lanka’s protected-species enforcement has been under scrutiny following the Court of Appeal’s March ruling on human-elephant conflict fences, which directed the Department to pursue more rigorous enforcement of habitat-protection statutes. Friday’s case is the latest in a recent pattern of court orders against trophies and parts derived from protected mammals around suburban Colombo.
