The Hon. Sajith Premadasa - Leader of the Opposition
Hon. Sajith Premadasa urged the Government to implement the existing Action Plan for elephant conservation, emphasizing that the issue concerns environmental and wildlife protection rather than politics. He noted that only about 6–7 percent of Sri Lankan Asian elephants have tusks, compared with 70–90 percent in India, and that the plan reflects the reality that most elephants live outside protected areas and overlap with human settlements.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Give me a few seconds, Sir. This is very important. In India, among Asian elephants, 70–90 percent may have tusks, but in Sri Lanka it is only about 6–7 percent. Therefore, please implement the Action Plan focused on conserving elephants. This is an environmental and wildlife protection issue, not politics. Do not shelve it or rebrand it; implement the widely accepted plan. Also note, roughly 30 percent of our elephants live in protected areas and 70 percent overlap with human landscapes; the Action Plan accounts for this reality.
¶ 02 Thank you.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Tuesday, 22 July 2025 ·No. 1753443916033328 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Sajith Premadasa - Leader of the Opposition. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 22 July 2025. No. 1753443916033328. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/13668