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07-01-2016, 10:19 AM
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Sri Lanka´s latest status symbol, a baby elephant
COLOMBO: Expensive and high-maintenance, baby elephants have become the ultimate status symbol for Sri Lanka´s wealthy elite -- a trend that has horrified conservationists and prompted a government *****down.
Elephants are venerated in mainly Buddhist Sri Lanka and capturing them is illegal. Yet authorities say more than 40 have been stolen from national parks over the last decade and are being kept as pets. "The new rich wannabes want an elephant at home for prestige," said Asian elephant expert Jayantha Jayewardene, recalling an old Sri Lankan aristocratic tradition of keeping herds of the wild beasts. "This is for social climbing." Earlier this year, the gift of a baby elephant to the visiting New Zealand Prime Minister John Key sparked anger from animal rights activists who said it was cruel to separate her from her family, and the incident has **t been repeated. Elephant calves have also been k**wn to be killed by the tranquiliser ***** used to make them more docile for capture. Pubudu Weerarathna, the head of the Species Conservation Centre wildlife group, has been involved in a number of rescues and remembers one young elephant succumbing to an overdose of tranquilisers. A**ther story had a happier ending -- in 2014 he confronted a group of men transporting a baby elephant on the back of a tractor trailer near a wildlife park. The calf had been sedated, but it made a good recovery. Intentionally killing an elephant is considered such a serious crime in Sri Lanka it is punishable by death -- though ** one has been prosecuted in decades. Two years ago a group of activists reported catching rustlers red-handed with a baby elephant, but ** action was ever taken. The government has stopped the tradition of gifting animals from its elephant orphanage in Pinnawala to Buddhist temples after activists raised concerns. But it faces pressure from the country´s top Buddhist temple, which says the *****down on keeping the animals has created a shortage of tame elephants for its annual religious pageant. The chief custodian of the Temple of the Tooth Nilanga Dela told AFP that at least 80 elephants were required for the event in the historic city of Kandy, in which relics said to be from the Buddha are paraded on the animals´ backs. أكثر... ??????? ??????: Sri Lanka´s latest status symbol, a baby elephant || ??????: ahlam1399 || ??????: اسم منتداك
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