Tusker Agbo shot in the eye with catapult, youth arrested

20 July 2024 10:56 am Views - 2562

By B.G.Chaturanga

Anuradhapura, July 20 (Daily Mirror)- An individual who shot the tusker Agbo frequenting Tirappane area, in its eye with a catapult, was taken into custody by Tirappane Police yesterday. The suspect was a resident of Akkara Panaha in Ethungama, Tirappane in the Anuradhapura District.

Police arrested him during investigations of a complaint received from the Organisation to Protect Wild Elephants and on information received by Senior DIG Priyantha Weerasuriya from a resident of the area.

The tusker had been provided treatment for a gunshot injury earlier and had undergone more than 100 surgeries before it recovered.

After recovery, it has been frequenting Tirappane area and causing extensive damage to cultivated land and home garden crops.

A representative of the organisation and Environmentalist Sumit Wanigasuriya said the villagers often inflicted cruelties on Agbo when it roamed into cultivated land. He pointed out that the tusker was an asset that should be protected.

He expressed concern about leaving it to the mercy of the villagers. The environmentalist who expressed concern about the pathetic condition of the jumbo said that it would not survive for more than six months if the wildlife officers neglected it. OIC Tirappane Police R.m.s. kumarasinghe conducted investigations and arrested the suspect who shot the jumbo in its eye with a catapult.