No evidence to suggest deliberate poisoning of the elephants, Wildlife officials say

Sri Lanka's wildlife veterinarians say so far they have not found any evidence to suggest the elephants in the Habarana forest reserve were deliberately poisoned.

Bodies of seven female wild elephants were discovered on Friday and Saturday in the Habarana-Hiriwadunna and Digampathana-Thumbikulam forest reserves.

The post mortem examination of the dead elephants has revealed no evidence to suspect that the animals had been poisoned by some outside food, Wildlife Veterinary Surgeon Chandana Jayasinghe said Sunday.

Veterinary surgeon Chandana Jayasinghe said the post mortem examination of one of the dead elephants conducted Sunday showed the presence of squash seeds in her stomach contents while other elephants had only grass. He added that there was no sign of other outside food being eaten by the elephants.

However, the post mortem examinations had shown that there was internal abdominal bleeding in all the animals.

One of the carcasses found yesterday was badly decomposed and although it was suspected to be of a female first it could be a male elephant. The post mortem examinations of three elephants found yesterday were conducted by wildlife veterinarian Chandana Jayasinghe and his team on the 29th.