• Concerns raised about Agbo’s survival if neglected by wildlife officers

By B.G.Chaturanga  

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.