High Commission of Sri Lanka in India

On the invitation of Indian Minister of Environment & Forests Jairam Ramesh, Minister of Environment Anura Priyadarshana Yapa participated at the Elephant – 8 Ministerial Meet held in New Delhi on 24th May 2011.

Elephant – 8 Ministerial Meeting was an initiative of the Government of India and Ministerial and senior government level representatives from 8 major elephant range countries namely, Botswana, Congo, Indonesia, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Thailand besides the host country participated. It is a precursor to a larger International Forum India intends to host in 2013.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister Yapa said that the elephant was intrinsic to the Sri Lanka’s culture, religious beliefs, history, mythology and politics as well. The elephant is of special importance to both Buddhists and Hindus in Sri Lanka. The Island has a sizeable population of 6000 elephants. As of present the Government of Sri Lanka has set aside 14% of the land of the Island as Protected Areas for the conservation of wildlife.

The Government of Sri Lanka, mindful of the need to ensure the long term survival of the elephant had prepared a “National Policy for the Conservation and Management of Wild Elephants in Sri Lanka” in 2006 that would facilitate the co-existence of both man and elephant. Through this policy, it introduced the establishment of Elephant Conservation Areas (ECA) and Managed Elephant Reserves (MER), where elephant conservation need not come into conflict with human activities. In 2009, the Government of Sri Lanka introduced the “Gaja Mithuro” (Friends of Elephants) programme mainly to mitigate the human – elephant conflict. Sri Lanka has established an Elephant Orphanage – the only one of its kind in the world – where current over 80 elephants rescued from the wild are being cared for. In addition, Sri Lanka has also established the Elephants Transit Home – another unique initiative that is found nowhere else in the Range States – where abandoned or orphaned elephant calves are rescued, rehabilitated and re-introduced back to their habitat in the wild.

The Minister also attended the launch of the UN Decade on Biodiversity for Asia & Pacific which was held in New Delhi, during his visit to India.

The Minister was accompanied by High Commissioner Prasad Kariyawasam, Mr. B.K.U.A. Wickramasinghe, Secretary, Ministry of Agrarian Services and Wildlife and other senior officials from the Ministry of Economic Development and the Wildlife Department of Sri Lanka.