Sri Lanka’s High Court sentenced an elephant keeper to 15 years in prison on Friday, in a landmark case involving trafficking of wildlife protected by strict environmental laws.<\/p>\n
The three-judge court in Colombo found Niraj Roshan guilty on two counts of keeping a stolen baby elephant and falsifying records to show he had obtained it legitimately.<\/p>\n
The verdict, which includes a fine equivalent to $68,600 and the elephant’s confiscation, comes six years after the case first went to court.<\/p>\n
“This is the first case of elephant trafficking filed in a Sri Lankan court,” a state prosecutor told the court, urging a deterrent sentence to discourage similar behaviour.<\/p>\n
Seven other suspects were cleared during the course of the trial due to lack of evidence.<\/p>\n
When the case was filed, wildlife experts estimated that about 40 baby elephants had been stolen from their herds over a decade, and sold for around $125,000 each.<\/p>\n
The practice largely stopped when a new government took office in 2015 and launched a crackdown.<\/p>\n
However, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who served briefly as president from 2019, had several other elephant theft cases dropped.<\/p>\n
But the charges against Roshan proceeded.<\/p>\n
Rajapaksa himself kept two baby elephants at his official residence when he served in his elder brother’s administration from 2005 to 2015.<\/p>\n
Among Sri Lanka’s super-rich, owning a baby elephant is considered the ultimate status symbol, and the animals were traditionally kept by aristocrats.<\/p>\n
They continue to be paraded at temple festivals.<\/p>\n
The illegal trade in calves has been blamed for a decline in Sri Lanka’s elephant population, with conservationists noting that mothers are often killed so their young can be captured.<\/p>\n
Escalating human-elephant conflict has also claimed around 400 elephants and 200 human lives annually over the past five years.<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka has an estimated 7,000 wild elephants — considered a national treasure, partly due to their significance in Buddhist culture.<\/p>\n