Sri Lanka announce new rule to save elephants

• Plastic cutlery, cocktail shakers, and artificial flowers will no longer be produced or sold.
• Non-biodegradable plastic bags were outlawed because of worries about flash floods.
• Elephants are revered and legally protected, yet over 400 of them perish annually.

Following a string of deaths from plastic poisoning in wild elephants and animals, the government of Sri Lanka announced Tuesday that it would outlaw single-use plastics.

Plastic cutlery, cocktail shakers, and artificial flowers will no longer be produced or sold starting in June, according to Cabinet spokesman and media minister Bandula Gunawardana.

A commission established 18 months ago to investigate the effects of plastic trash on the environment and wildlife recommended the action.

In 2017, non-biodegradable plastic bags were outlawed because of worries about flash floods.

Autopsies revealed that the animals had consumed plastics mixed with food waste before they died.

However, local production and sales of plastic goods continued.

However, Jayantha Jayewardene, the foremost expert on Asian elephants in Sri Lanka, told AFP that the prohibition should also apply to biodegradable plastic bags.

It’s not a good thing that these bags are entering the food chains of elephants and other animals, he said.

In Sri Lanka, elephants are revered and legally protected, yet over 400 of them perish annually due to conflict with people in close proximity to wildlife reserves, along with roughly 50 people.

Jumbos now invade villages in search of food as a result of the habitat loss, and many of them die in agonising ways after hunting for food in plastic garbage dumps.

About five years ago, dozens of wild deer in Trincomalee’s northeastern region perished from plastic poisoning, causing the authorities to outlaw open waste dumping near jungle reserves.

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