"postmorteming"

#10063268

20 May 2023

idences to see the elephants. The Wildlife Department is postmorteming an elephant's body after its tusks were chopped off by smugglers on May 20, 2023 in Habarana, Sri Lanka. Elephas maximus maximus, the Sri Lankan wild elephant, is being threatened due to humans clearing forests and building settlements, leading to frequent visits to elephant villages and creating an elephant-human conflict. In 2022, 433 elephant deaths and 145 human deaths will have been reported due to this problem, and from January 1 to April 25, 2023, 114 elephant deaths have been reported. In the Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, and Eastern Provinces, 34, 29, and 19 elephant deaths have been reported respectively. In 2023, 36 people will have died due to elephant-human conflict. Sri Lankans have been taming and using wild elephants for cultural and religious activities since ancient times, and they are still being used for Buddhist processions such as the Kandy Dalada Perahera. Elephants are also beneficial for Sri Lanka's tourism industry, as many tourists come to see them and the country receives a lot of foreign exchange from their visits to parks in different provinces.

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