New Law Bans Drunkenly Driving Elephants in Sri Lanka

New animal protection laws in Sri Lanka require all domesticated elephants to have biometric identity cards and ban riders from drunkenly driving their elephants on the job. According to Barron's, these new measures aim to protect elephants' welfare.

ABC Australia reported that there are approximately 200 domesticated elephants in Sri Lanka. Wealthy Sri Lankans and Buddhist monks own and use elephants as status symbols, while others use elephants for religious ceremonies, tourism and logging.

The State Minister of Wildlife Protection laid out the new regulations in a gazette notice on Thursday. While some laws pertain to all Sri Lankan elephant owners, others focus on those who own working elephants.

The regulations released Thursday will require all owners to obtain "photo identity cards with a DNA stamp for all animals under their care," reported ABC Australia. Additionally, all elephants must receive a medical check-up every six months, and owners must have at least three acres of land on which the elephant can roam. An additional acre of land must be owned for each additional elephant.

Owners of working elephants must also comply with a stricter set of rules.

According to the new laws, riders can no longer drink and ride their elephants.

"The person who owns or has the custody of such elephants shall ensure that the mahout [rider] is not consuming any liquor or any harmful drug while employed," read the notice.

Logging elephants can not be worked for more than four hours a day, and must also receive no less than two-and-a-half hours of bathing time per day.

A pregnant elephant, female elephants with calves under the age of two, any elephant in musth or elephants over the age of 60 are prohibited from working. People have also been banned from using elephants in films, save for government productions.

Perhaps in an effort to decrease human-elephant conflict, all people are banned from lighting crackers or shooting near an elephant. The exception, of course, being "traditional gunfire" in sacred religious ceremonies.

To read the full list of new regulations, click here.

The government can seize elephants from those who do not comply with the new rules, and violators could also face up to three years in prison.

The World Wildlife Fund reported that the Sri Lankan elephant population has decreased significantly since the 19th century. As such, elephants are protected by law in the country, and the intentional killing of an elephant is punishable by death.

Last year, the BBC reported that 361 elephants died in Sri Lanka in 2019. Sadly, according to conservation groups, most were killed by people. Some elephants were poisoned, while others simply died as a result of habitat encroachment.

The ultimate aim of the new regulations is to prevent elephants from dying as a result of abuse or poor working conditions, and lead to a decrease in human-elephant conflict fatalities.