Halt to biopiracy and environmental crimes

by Dhaneshi YATAWARA

The Wild Life Department prevented fifteen cases of animal and plant smuggling since the beginning of this year, said Upali Padmasiri Officer-in-Charge of the Flying Squad and Assistant Director (Law Enforcement) of the Wild Life Department. "These are raids done by the Department officials and in addition the Sri Lanka Police and the Customs have large numbers of records of such cases. By widening our network we will be able to track down more cases, Padmasiri said.

Under the directives of Director General of Wild Life Department Ananda Wijesooriya, a special network will be implemented with local and international authorities for information sharing, to strengthen efforts on preventative biopiracy and environmental crimes. The system is to protect different areas of the country catering to its environmental and geographical nature. "Under the law every Government employee can complain or direct the attention of authorities in any sort of crime. People should be more aware of the fact and use it to protect Sri Lankan nature," Padmasiri said.