Sri Lanka has become the first South Asiatic country – and the 16th in sum – to destroy its reserve of confiscated illegal ivory . A aggregate of 359 elephant tusks were crushed during a public ceremonial occasion in Colombo , attended by governing functionary , diplomat , schoolchildren and representatives of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora ( CITES ) .
The effect also watch several spiritual drawing card do funerary rites for the elephants killed in social club to find the ivory , with Buddhistic monk Omalpe Sobitha Thero describing this ceremonial gesture as a way of “ apologizing for this atrocity . ” Hindu , Muslim , Buddhist , and Christian leaders also gave brief speech in which they iterate the grandness of protecting the surroundings and reprobate poaching .
After being destroyed in an industrial crusher – a physical process that took seven hours – the ivory was transferred to an incinerator , and is set to be dumped into the Indian Ocean once it has been burned .
Buddhist , Muslim , Hindu and Christian leaders perform funerary rites for the elephant , as a way of apologizing for the atrocities committed against them . AP Photo / Eranga Jayawardena
deserving an estimated $ 3 million ( £ 2.1 million ) and weighing around 1.5 tonnes ( 1.65 ton ) , the ivory destroyed at the ceremony was all seized in 2012 , when a load incorrectly marked as plastic waste was uncovered by Sri Lankan customs functionary while in theodolite between Kenya and Dubai . An Interpol probe later traced the pearl back to Mozambique and Tanzania , where elephants are continually poach for their ivory , despite an outside ban onivory trade .
Since the majority of Sri Lankan elephant lack tusks , the poaching trouble is for the most part concentrated in Africa , with reports of around 100 being mow down every day in 2012 . The Bachelor of Arts in Nursing on the sale of bone was bring into upshot in 1989 , although while elephant population in Africa did concisely increase at once following this , studieshave revealed that their numbers are uphold to diminish across the continent due to illegal sales .
Most ivory is reportedly sell in Asian and Middle Eastern marketplace , where it is used for family medicines and cosmetic purpose . It is feared that if poaching continues at its current charge per unit , African elephant couldface extinctionin as little as 15 geezerhood .
