COPA suggests obtaining assistance of tri-forces and CDF to mitigate human-elephant conflict

The Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) has recommended that the help of the Civil Defence Department be enlisted to minimise incidents of human-elephant conflict.

It was revealed at a recent COPA meeting that Sri Lanka had the highest number of elephant deaths in the world due to the human-elephant conflict.

 To mitigate that situation, the COPA stressed the need to obtain the services of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Civil Defence Department to assist agrarian organisations and the villagers in the construction and maintenance of elephant fences and elephant trenches required to reduce the human-elephant conflict.

The COPA observed that the human-elephant conflict had worsened over the decades.

The recommendations are in a report presented recently by COPA chair Prof. Tissa Vitarana to the first session of the ninth Parliament.

The COPA revealed that although the average number of elephants killed per year, due to the human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka, was 272, in 2019, it had risen to a record 407. It was also revealed that although the average number of human deaths due to human-elephant conflict was 85 a year, but 122 people had died in 2019. Therefore, the Committee stressed the need for immediate action on this issue.

The COPE has asked the Department of Wildlife Conservation to abandon the old policy which has so far failed and to implement the policy formulated by Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando, who is an expert on elephants.

According to the report, the policy of constructing an electric fence and trapping elephants is a failure because only female elephants and calves are trapped.

The report also mentions that it has been revealed that male elephants bigger in size are responsible for causing harm to humans and crops.

Presenting the report to Parliament, Prof. Vitarana said that although the government had allocated large sums of money, from the annual budget, for the prevention of the human-elephant conflict, the problem had taken a turn for the worse. Therefore, the old policy which results in costing the government a large amount of money should be changed immediately, the COPA chair has said.

The report has mentioned that it is the duty of the Wildlife Department to prepare an action plan to reduce the human-elephant conflict and pointed out the importance of obtaining the consent of the Mahaweli Authority and the Forest Department when obtaining lands for the construction of elephant reserves. (SI)