Wild elephant dies trapped in ZD canal sluice

A wild elephant, aged about 12 years, that fell into the Welikanda ZD canal has died by drowning after getting trapped in a sluice gate in Maithreegama, the Welikanda Wildlife Office said.

Wildlife officials suspect that this wild elephant fell into the canal when it arrived at the ZD canal during the early hours of the day yesterday (16) to drink water.

It is reported that the wild elephant is about 7 feet and 4 inches in height.

Officials believe that the elephant could have drifted along the canal towards a sluice gate supplying water to the Karashan Tank in the Maithreegama area, and died by drowning, getting trapped there.

Villagers who went to check on a sudden decrease in the water level of the canal releasing water from the Karashan Tank saw the elephant trapped near the sluice gate.

Later they informed the Welikanda Wildlife Office.

Accordingly, wildlife officials who arrived at that location brought the elephant out of the sluice gate, but the elephant was already dead, wildlife officials said.

A team including W. M. C. A. Wanasinghe, Wildlife Beat Assistant of the Welikanda Wildlife Office, Ranger D. G. D. K. Dehigahagedara, and driver W. D. C. Srimal joined this operation.

The postmortem examination of the dead wild elephant was scheduled to be conducted this morning (17) by Giritale Veterinary Surgeon Kalindu Arachchi.