Details: On Aug 12, 2021, which marks the occasion of World Elephant Day, a notification was issued by Sri Lanka’s Minister of Wildlife Protection, Wimalaweera Dissanayake. The directives mandated bio-metric identification cards for 200 elephants in captivity. Each elephant will be identified by a photo and a DNA stamp on the cards that intend to protect them from being mistreated by their owners. According to animal activists, up to 40 newborn elephants have been kidnapped from Sri Lanka’s national parks in the previous 15 years.