New elephant census next year

By Saman Indrajith

The Agriculture and Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation Ministry has decided to conduct a new countrywide census on elephants in 2023.The decision was made at the first meeting of the Ministerial Consultative Committee on Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation at the parliament complex on Tuesday (15).

The need for a fresh elephant census has arisen as about 12 years have elapsed since the the last census.A complete census of elephants will be conducted as a part of a long-term programme to reduce human-elephant conflict.The MPs who were present at the meeting pointed out that the elephant-human conflict was worsening. Ratnapura, and Ampara districts.

It was revealed at the meeting that there were 16 main elephant corridors in the country and most of them have currently been blocked by illegal settlements of people. As a result of that the elephant attacks on villages increased. The obstacles blocking the elephant corridors would be removed as one of the measures to bring down incidents of elephant human conflicts.

Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation Mahinda Amaraweera, Deputy Speaker Ajith Rajapaksa, Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa, State Ministers Siripala Gamlath, Shantha Bandara, Thenuka Vidanagamage, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, Diana Gamage, Rohana Dissanayake, Chamara Sampath Dassanayake, Vijitha Berugoda, Mohan Priyadarshana de Silva, a group of Members of Parliament including Kins Nelson, Kapila Athukorala, Kumarasiri Ratnayake, and government officials were also present at the meeting.