An operations room staffed by wildlife officers, veterinarians and Tri-Forces personnel is to be established at Sri Lanka Army Headquarters, as the military takes on a standing role in protecting wild elephants and tuskers.

The decisions were taken at a meeting at the Ministry of Environment on 23 October, chaired by Environment Minister Dr. Dammika Patabendi and Deputy Minister Anton Jayakody, the Daily Mirror reported and the Island reported in matching terms.

Army Commander Lieutenant General K. V. Nilantha P. Premarathne attended, alongside the Secretary to the Ministry of Environment, the Director General of Wildlife Conservation, representatives of military intelligence and drone operations units, and voluntary environmental organisations.

What each side supplies

The arrangement is an exchange of capability rather than a transfer of authority.

The Department of Wildlife Conservation will provide specialised training to military personnel on elephant behaviour and the correct procedures for handling wild elephants in the field.

The military will provide accommodation and field research facilities inside military camps for wildlife officers engaged in conservation work — addressing a practical constraint on operating in remote conflict zones — and will deploy special security detachments to monitor the movements and migratory routes of vulnerable tuskers identified in high-risk areas.

Enforcement

Joint emergency raids are to be intensified in areas affected by human-elephant conflict, the Daily Mirror reported separately from the same meeting.

Discussion covered strengthening the legal framework against the killing of wild elephants and the use of hakka patas — improvised explosive baits that detonate in an animal’s mouth — along with other wildlife offences. A more reliable reporting mechanism for wildlife crimes is to be introduced to speed up information-sharing between agencies.

Officials also gave specific attention to managing crowds around sick or injured elephants, where onlookers obstruct wildlife officers and veterinarians trying to treat the animal.

Weekly data evaluations and monthly progress reviews were agreed to assess operations and update protection plans.

Context

The involvement of the armed forces in elephant work is not new in practice — security forces rescued an elephant in Anuradhapura on 22 October — but a standing operations room, named detachments and a training pipeline formalise what has been ad hoc.

It follows parliamentary attention to elephant protection, including questions over the missing tusker Mahasen, and the continuing build-out of the electric fence network, now at 5,741 km.

A separate decision announced the following day will establish a second elephant transit home at Kalahagala in Polonnaruwa.

Update — the operation launched on 2 November as ‘Hasthi Sena’

The arrangement agreed here took the field on 2 November, when the joint operation — named ‘Hasthi Sena’ (Elephant Force) — was launched at Galkiriyagama in the North-Western Wildlife Zone.

The launch answers three of the questions left open below. Sixty military personnel have been deployed in 10 operational teams across six groups; the initial phase focuses on 17 elephants identified as facing threats; and the operation runs islandwide under the direct supervision of Army Commander Lieutenant General Nilantha Premaratne. The Environment Minister said the operation is planned to cover around 80 per cent of areas inhabited by elephants.

On its first day the operation seized unauthorised firearms, ammunition, animal traps and hakka-patas in the Kala Wewa area, to be produced before the Kekirawa Magistrate’s Court under the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance.

A budget and an end date are still not reported.

Not reported

None of the filings from this meeting gives a start date, a budget, the number of personnel involved, or how many tuskers have been identified as vulnerable — the personnel and elephant figures were supplied later, at the 2 November launch. None names the high-risk areas.

None states the legal basis for military personnel acting in wildlife enforcement, or what powers — if any — the detachments will hold. None reports a current figure for elephant deaths this year.

Sources: Military personnel to receive special training in elephant protection — Daily Mirror, October 23, Joint operations room and special mechanism by Wildlife Department and Tri-Forces — The Island, October 23, Joint raids planned to curb elephant killings and wildlife crimes — Daily Mirror, October 23.