Safety of people and wildlife at stake?

The Wildlife Department head recently revealed that most weapons used to kill elephants and wildlife were domestically produced weapons and that the government analyst has issues tracing the origins of bullets during investigations. 

This is a dangerous state of affairs given the high number of crimes being reported on a daily basis. The availability of videos which show how to manufacture lethal weapons provides ample opportunities for people with such interests to continue such activities. Sri Lanka has a history of domestically manufactured weapons including bombs using raw materials that could be obtained from scrapyards and garages and urgent monitoring of such establishments is required. 

This subject falls under the Ministry of Defence. Defence analysts have argued about the inability to maintain a gun registry, thereby escalating the rate of crimes taking place in broad daylight. Shooting at an animal or a person is a crime and people with such vested interests need to be given maximum punishment. But political will matters the most in both these instances. While farmers need options to protect their crops from crop damage that doesn’t mean that weapons should be issued to allow them to shoot at any animal that they consider as pests. It had been recorded that at least 13,000 weapons have been issued to farmers and this sets a bad precedent for wildlife conservation activities. While we need to save our livelihoods it is imperative that we also save our natural heritage. Dear President, it is up to your government to take steadfast action in this regard! 

A concerned citizen