CAUSE EAGLE!

Another social media coup as police arrest two of the five men involved in the senseless torture and beheading of the white bellied sea eagle:

by Dhaneshi Yatawara

Hot on the heels of a successful social media campaign last week – ‘Occupy the Square’ – that defended the right of young lovers to meet at Independence Square without being chased away by ‘cultural police,’ a second such campaign also resulted in immediate results: Two suspects were arrested for killing a white-bellied eagle, three others are absconding.

The two suspects being taken away

Though the issue concerning the lovers and birds is poles apart, a commonality exists between the two because in both instances, it was social media which alerted the authorities. Posting a picture of a skinned eagle which had been brutally massacred to say the least was bizarre and added to the misery was a group of gleeful men surrounding the innocent animal, which went viral and urged law enforcement authorities to act fast to nab the suspects. Two suspects responsible for the torture and killing of the eagle were arrested by the Habaraduwa Police and remanded till March 24.

According to the Police, the other three suspects of the group of poachers have fled their homes and were in hiding. Police assure that they will soon be arrested as a net has been thrown to nab them.

The culprits are residents of Wanchawala in Galle. The incident took place in a small marshland close to a temple famously known among the villagers as Kalaya pansala (temple). A nature lover who first saw the pictures uploaded on social media by the group of poachers who had titled it ‘Sunday fun’., copied it to other enthusiasts and then followed the drama. These poachers had the audacity to post it on social media not knowing the consequences it entailed. This led to an organised campaign to nab the culprits.

Social media

“Social media has been instrumental in helping to nab the culprits. The authorities welcome such efforts,” Wildlife Minister Gamini Jayawickrama Perera said.

Parallel to legal action being instituted, wildlife authorities will divulge the names of those guilty.” Committing crimes against nature should be abhorred,” he said.

“Police found the head of the eagle hung in the house of one of the suspects. Wildlife officials are working with the police in this instance,”a spokesperson for the Wildlife Ministry said. “We would appreciate if the public inform the whereabouts of the other suspects as soon as they get to know, be it on social media or through other channels,” he said. For environmentalists, conservationists and the public who are nature lovers, the tragic killing of an innocent bird is startling, to say the least .

Sea eagle

The eagle is a white bellied sea eagle (‘Haliaeetus leucogaster’). Dr. Sampath Seneviratne of the Field Ornithologists Group and senior lecturer at the Colombo University Zoology Department recalled that this was the second instance where the killing of birds was posted on social media. “The first was nearly six months ago when I was conducting my research in the Batticaloa District,” he said. Despite poaching which has been going on for quite sometime, killing eagles was rare, Dr. Seneviratne said. This eagle is the second largest among eagles that can fly long distances and catch a fish weighing two or three kilograms. The ‘Haliaeetus leucogaster’ is a well-built bird and was a wonderful sight when in flight. Bird poaching is on the rise in the North, Dr. Seneviratne said. “There were reports of ducks and blackhead ibis being killed for consumption,” he said.

In his current research in Mannar, Dr. Seneviratne found that people set traps to catch certain varieties of birds. “They used fish nets to catch them. It was still in the early stages and the authorities should be alert and take remedial action to prevent this,” Dr. Seneviratne said. According to information so far gathered by Dr. Seneviratne following field visits, poaching was rampant even in nature reserves in the newly cleared areas in the Jaffna peninsula such as Chundikulam.