An officer of the Wildlife Conservation Department of Sri Lanka (DWC) was shot dead yesterday by poachers during a raid in the Galloya National Park.
Pradeep Bandara 25 years old had a lifetime of service before him, and Sri Lankans mourn the loss of a brave protector of its precious species.
Group of Sri Lankans are now signing a petition urging President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s presidential intervention to empower wildlife officers against poachers.
Full Petition
“Wildlife officers are frequently at risk faced with increasingly daring organized poaching operations throughout Sri Lanka’s national parks. We believe the DWC staff on the ground are currently undermanaged, understaffed, under-resourced, and under-gunned. Yet, a portion of the department’s allocated public funds are annually returned unspent to the treasury. As such, we cannot act shocked when a ranger is killed in the line of duty. As dedicated and hardworking people, they need to be properly trained, equipped, staffed, managed and motivated. We believe public funds are available to allocate better anti-poacher equipment and training for our brave wildlife officers. Together we can stop a tragedy such as this from ever happening again.
We plead His Excellency President Gotabhaya Rajapakse to intervene to
(1) ramp up wildlife officers’ resources and training,
(2) improve their standing to the level of other brave servicemen and military heroes
(3) name today (23 April) our Wildlife Conservation Heroes Day in order to raise awareness of their incredible fight against deathly poaching rackets
(4) boost wildlife ranging capacity with the aid of forces’ logistics
(5) bestow the highest honours posthumously to ranger Pradeep Bandara to recognize his bravery during the raid
Click here to sign the Petition