Every year August 12 is designated as World Wild Elephant Day in view of the conservation of the world’s wild elephants.
World Wild Elephant Day was first named in 2012 in Thailand, when film director William Shatner announced it, after two documentaries were made about wild elephants, focusing on the issues related to Asian elephants. Speaking to the media regarding World Wild Elephant Day, Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation Minister Mahinda Amaraweera stated that the theme of this year’s World Wild Elephant Day is ‘Prehistoric Beauty, Theological Relevance and Environmental Importance’.
He also emphasized that the population of wild elephants in Sri Lanka exceeds 5,000 according to the last elephant census conducted in 2011, and that every year wild elephants as well as humans die due to human–elephant conflict.
Due to human encroachment of wild elephants’ habitats, disregarding environmental assessments, elephants and subsequently humans have become displaced.
Therefore, the Minister said that in the future, they will think twice when giving land for development projects and take strict decisions not to give land belonging to the habitats of wild elephants for development projects.
