Group, a lot has happened in Sri Lanka on the captive baby elephant front since the last update. The neat court procedure is mid August. In short, the wildlife interests in Sri Lanka are clashing with the “cultural” interests. The “cultural” interests consist of keeping elephants at temples and using them in peraheras (religious festivals and parades) and at Elephant rides and in logging at other times. Those interested in keeping this “culture” coincidentally make a lot of money leasing these elephants to temples and marching them in parades for months at a time during festival season. Here is an article summarizing this issue in Sri Lanka: http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/illegally-captured-elephants-in-sri-lanka-temples/ More details: 1. Colombo HC issued an order to tackle each illegal captive baby elephant in a separate case. The Court ruled in favor of an illegally captured baby elephant, ‘Samadhi’ (assigned Permit 333 that does not tally with her) on 1st July 2016 in a court battle that lasted 22 months in Colombo Magistrate Court No 5 and CID was finally able to rescue her in mid-July. CID (Criminal Investigation Dept) and DWC (Dept of Wildlife Conservation) have yet to be take 2 elephant calves into their custody (Permits 198 ‘Ganga’ (female) and 200 ‘Bhanu’) and are deliberately delaying it due to political pressure preventing their rescue. It is also considered a ‘Contempt of Court’ as the necessary Court Order was issued over 6 months ago by Hon Gihan Pilapitiya Chief Magistrate of Colombo MC No. 1 on the request of CID. 2. The ele is ordered to be at Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage (PEO). However this is an issue, because PEO is an archaic “exhibition- focused” zoo. Pinnawala is a tourist scam, not an orphanage. Please feel free to rate the PEO on their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pinnawala-Elephant-Orphanage/111626378855430?fref=ts Wildlife advocates want the baby elephants to go to the Elephant transit home (ETH) because the Dept of Wildlife Conservation should rehabilitate and release back to the wild. But the corrupt interests want a large pool of baby elephants to use in the peraheras because of the large amounts of money that elephants bring in. http://heartforanimals.com/2016/05/sri-lanka-pinnawala-elephant-orphanage-endangered-elephants-in-chains/ 3. Many newspapers ran a story about the corruption of Sri Lanka’s wealthy who support the capture of baby elephants for use in a lucrative trade to keep them as status symbols http://www.elephant.wildwatchsrilanka.org/ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3669237/Sri-Lankas-latest-status-symbol-baby-elephant.html 4. Because of corruption and interference from with the Dept of Wildlife Conservation, the head of the Department resigned. Dr Pilapitiya: https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/when-the-best-man-for-the-job-is-not-allowed-to-do-his-job/