Who is the owner of the white tortoises caught at Hotel Hilton?

Saturday, 25 April 2015

Few days back the Wild Life Department caught three white tortoises illegally rearing inside a garden of Hilton Hotel Colombo. The hotel trade union pointed out despite taking action against the hotel premises a person working within the garden of the Hotel has been taken into custody.

The national organizer for the Hotel workers Union B.I Abdeen has sent a letter to the director of the Wild Life Authority revealing this. Despite questioning the hotel General Manager Manish Fernando Gayan Ravindra, the garden worker of the hotel has been taken in to custody and produced before the Fort Magistrate.

Hotel Workers Union emphasized this is a methodology the police and the Excise department follow when taking illicit liquor into custody. The Wild Life Department officers have acted similar of taking a henchman of the owner into custody instead of arresting the owner who produced the illicit liquor.

The Hotel General Manager should be aware of the rearing of the Tortoises in the hotel premises. He should bear the responsibility as the chief of the hotel. If possessing Tortoises is an offence the General Manager should be directly responsible. Therefore the law should be enforced against the General Manager not against the garden worker of the hotel.

There is no reason the Wild Life Department is not aware of this fact. However if there is any other hidden reasons behind this the Wild Life Department should bear the whole responsibility.