By Lasantha Niroshan Perera

Wildlife Conservation Officers confirmed that a herd of 19 elephants was seen roaming around the jungles surrounding the Sri Pada sacred area and they had photographed one of the elephants near Dharmaraja rock on en-route to Sri Pada.

Officials said they saw five elephants frequent­ing the Sri Pada route and that they are well grown jumbos. They said two herds of elephants live in the wet zone and one is in the Sri Pada range. The park office of the depart­ment that carried out    a survey   on elephants in the Sri  Pada  area enumerated   19 well grown ele­phants.

The park superintendent said the Sri Pada forest reserve which is rich in water re­sources and fodder and its cold climate provided the herd a natural habi­tat to roam about and breed freely. He stressed that pil­grims would not face any danger as the ele­phants move deep into theforest and keep away from the busy Sri Pada route during the pil-grimmage season.