The Wildlife Ministry has appointed an independent six-member expert committee to probe into the sudden death of seven elephants in Habarana area as the post-mortem conducted failed to identify the causes. 

The six-member expert committee is headed by former Deputy Director General of Animal Production and Health Prof. S.E. Ranawana, while the members include Dr. L.H. Dhammi (expert in forensic toxicology), Dr. D.L. Waidyaratne (expert in forensic pathology), Manori Gunawardhana (expert in elephant ecology), Dr. E.W.Y. Lakshani (expert in agrochemicals) and Dr. Ganga Wijesinghe (expert in veterinary science and pathology).

This new expert committee was appointed yesterday by the Wildlife Ministry Secretary S. Hettiarachchi in addition to the committee appointed by the Department of Wildlife Conservation.

Accordingly, the terms of reference (TOR) for this committee include; conduct an independent investigation to reveal the probable causes of deaths, provide scientific evidence for conclusions drawn and to probe migratory measures to avoid deaths in future.

The final report is expected by the Ministry in a month’s time.

Wildlife officials said four dead elephants were discovered last Friday and another three on Saturday in Habarana Forest Reserve. It was revealed that three of the cow elephants were pregnant.

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