By Ruwan Laknath JayakodyTrade unions, attached to the National Zoological Gardens Department and representing its employees, have written to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the wake of the resignation of the Department’s Director General (DG) Ishini Wickremesinghe, requesting that said resignation not be accepted and that she be reappointed to the post. The letter has been signed by the Sri Lanka Podujana National Zoological Gardens Department Employees/Workers Association (Dehiwala) Chairman Krishantha Christopals. The other union that is involved in supporting this action is the National Zoological Gardens Active Employees/Workers Association. The so-called owners were those individuals who had possession of the elephants prior to the litigation, after having allegedly captured the pachyderms, including elephant calves, from the wild. Since 2015, 47 of these elephants, including calves, were taken from their so-called owners and placed under court-ordered custody with the Wildlife Conservation Department and the National Zoological Gardens Department.

Source: The Nation September 12, 2021 19:18 UTC