The elephant, which represents processions or Peraheras displaying Sri Lanka’s culture as well as its pride to the world from ancient times, renders a great service to the tourist campaigns of Sri Lanka as well, stated Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in a message to mark the World Elephant Conservation Day, August 12.
Canadian national film producers, Patricia Sims, Michael Clarke and the Secretary of the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation – Sivaporn Dardarananda named August 12 annually from the year 2011 as ‘World Elephant Day’.
The theme of the World Elephant Day is, ‘This is the best time to inquire into and get to know about the protection and conservation of amazing animals’. The main goal and mission of World Elephant Day is to distribute creative knowledge for raising awareness regarding good solutions for the protection and management of elephants.
The Government stands up for the protection of elephants and their conservation. Elephants are the largest animals living on Earth and are loved and respected by people and cultures worldwide. We have rendered immense services in safeguarding these animals.
There are many threats to both African and Asian elephants due to hunting, being deprived of places to live in, the human-elephant conflict and misuse in slavery.
The purposes of conserving elephants are to provide better protection for elephants, improving policies for setting up laws to empower the prevention of illegal hunting and sale of elephant tusks, conservation of elephants’ living places, ensuring better treatment for captive elephants and returning them to safe wildlife sanctuaries. Organizations on conservation of elephants across the world have focused their attention on these.
The present Government has taken various actions to solve the human-elephant conflict which is a topic of interest within Sri Lanka. During this era when there is a threat of extinction of elephants, it is the responsibility of us all to protect elephants.
At the same time, we should remind ourselves on World Elephant Day that the time has come for us to gather together as one nation and that we should work towards this purpose.
