Human-elephant conflict: Increase in death toll expected

By Ifham Nizam

The government is planning to go for a complete installation of electric fences, to ward off wild elements in all the districts next year, particularly with a focus on eight districts, the Department of Wildlife Conservation said.A senior official of the Department told The Island that they feared the human-elephant conflict would take a turn for the worse, during the current year.  “Death rates are more than 100, with available statistics, and it could increase further.”

During the first four months of 2022, 47 elephant deaths and 34 human deaths were reported. Of these wild elephant deaths, 13 were shot, 17 electrocuted, 19 killed with the help of improvised explosive devices. The human-elephant conflict has intensified during the past three years. About 407 elephant deaths and 122 human deaths were reported in 2019, 328 elephant deaths and 112 human deaths in 2020, 375 elephant deaths and 142 human deaths in 2021..

 A discussion on the prevention of elephant-human conflicts, in the Hambantota district, was held on Saturday (13) at the Lunugamwehera Wildlife Office. Wildlife officers and others participated in this event.It was revealed here that the elephant-human conflict existed in 131 regional secretariat jurisdictions, in 19 districts, in eight provinces of Sri Lanka.

Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said that necessary equipment for the construction of electric elephant fences, to cover all areas where wild elephants are threatened in the Hambantota district, had been available in the Lunugamwehera Wildlife Office for some time. However, it was revealed that the construction of the electric fence remains a problem due to farmers’ protests.

The officials said that equipment brought to set up electric fences, by Wildlife offices, countrywide, had not been properly utilized.Therefore, as a step to end the human-elephant conflict,within the next year, the Minister told the Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation Secretary Chandra Herath a consensus had to be reached among all stakeholders for the project to be a success.