Elephants may provide bling to ceremonies but Sri Lankan authorities are targeting owners of those taken from wild

In Sri Lanka, an elephant in the back yard has long been a sign of wealth, privilege and power. But these days it may also be a sign that someone is breaking the law.

Capturing wild elephants has been banned for decades here. Registration records indicate there should be only 127 elephants in captivity, most of them older. Yet they are a staple of the South Asian island nation’s 400 or so yearly processions – traditional ceremonies honouring a marriage, calling for peace or praying for rain – and in each there are always a few young elephants clumsily cantering to keep up.

“In Sri Lanka, people measure the success of the processions by the number of elephants,” said Magalkande Sudantha, a Buddhist monk.

Despite concerns that the animals may be abused, spectators always expect a parade of elephants wearing jangling ornaments, and babies are a special attraction.

“There is no beauty in processions without elephants,” said Janaka Alwis, a 48-year-old city council employee in Gampaha, north of Colombo. “People go to watch because of the elephants, and to count them.”

Aware of the ongoing elephant racket, authorities have been cracking down. In the last two years, the government has confiscated 39 elephants whose owners produced either false permits or none at all. Some had paid as much as US$200,000 per captured animal when a previous government was in office, according to Wildlife Minister Gamini Jayawickrama Perera.

Those facing prosecution for illegally keeping elephants include one judge and a Buddhist monk. Police are also considering charges against people suspected of rounding up wild elephants for profit.