<p class="title">Wildlife officials found three more dead wild elephants in central Sri Lanka Saturday, raising the number believed to have been poisoned by angry villagers to seven.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The animals were found at a forest reserve near Sigiriya, a fifth-century rock fortress and UNESCO-protected heritage site, police said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Since Friday, we have found the remains of seven cow elephants, including a tusker," police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Nearly 200 elephants are killed every year on the island, many by farmers after the animals stray onto their land.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Marauding elephants kill roughly 50 people annually, mostly when the creatures stray into villages near their habitat.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A pregnant female and a male were among the four carcasses found on Friday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Wildlife experts and vets will carry out autopsies, said a police official in Sigiriya, north of Colombo, as they suspect the animals may have been poisoned.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Police said there had been a spate of incidents involving wild elephants storming villages and destroying crops in the area.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Killing the animals is in theory punishable by death.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Sri Lanka's elephant population has dwindled to just over 7,000, according to the latest census, down from an estimated 12,000 at the beginning of the last century.</p>
<p class="title">Wildlife officials found three more dead wild elephants in central Sri Lanka Saturday, raising the number believed to have been poisoned by angry villagers to seven.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The animals were found at a forest reserve near Sigiriya, a fifth-century rock fortress and UNESCO-protected heritage site, police said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Since Friday, we have found the remains of seven cow elephants, including a tusker," police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekera said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Nearly 200 elephants are killed every year on the island, many by farmers after the animals stray onto their land.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Marauding elephants kill roughly 50 people annually, mostly when the creatures stray into villages near their habitat.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A pregnant female and a male were among the four carcasses found on Friday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Wildlife experts and vets will carry out autopsies, said a police official in Sigiriya, north of Colombo, as they suspect the animals may have been poisoned.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Police said there had been a spate of incidents involving wild elephants storming villages and destroying crops in the area.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Killing the animals is in theory punishable by death.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Sri Lanka's elephant population has dwindled to just over 7,000, according to the latest census, down from an estimated 12,000 at the beginning of the last century.</p>