Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2017-05-30

Measures to be taken to prevent the hanging out of Wild Elephants around Waste Disposal Sites

- The improper disposal of waste has affected the environment as well as the wild animals, adversely . It has been identified that there are 54 waste disposal yards especially in the forest zones for the disposal of waste and that over 300 wild elephants are reported roaming around these sites. The wild elephants getting used to consume waste has resulted in pausing a serious threat to their lives. As such, the joint proposal made by Hon. Gamini Jayawickrema Perera, the Minister of Sustainable Development and Wildlife and Hon. Faiszer Musthapha, the Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government, to workout an integrated plan giving priority to places where the wild elephants frequent mostly for re-cycling of waste by the Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Government together with the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Wildlife and to erect electric fences in the proper places to prevent the entry of wild elephants to the waste disposal yards, as a solution to this issue, was approved by the Cabinet.