Elephants to be provided to the Dalada Maligawa
September 2, 2011 12:43 pm
The Wildlife Minister, S.N. Chandrasena stated that the Dalada Maligawa will be provided with elephants and tuskers following the island-wide Elephant census coming to an end.
The Maligawa will be provided mainly with elephants to carry out its cultural and religious rites.
The Minister added that the population of elephants in Sri Lanka was healthy in comparison to other Asian countries.
The elephant census was taken after splitting the land mass into seven zones which recorded the following statistics,
Mahaweli – 1751 elephants (the most recorded in one zone)
Central – 47
East – 1573
Wayamba – 1189
South – 1086
North – 223
No wild elephants were recorded in the Western Zone while 1107 elephant calves were counted.
