Wildlife Dept crows about lowering of fatalities in continuing human-elephant conflict

By Ifham Nizam

The Department of Wildlife Conservation yesterday claimed timely initiatives and awareness campaigns had brought down the number of elephant deaths especially due to human activities.

The department’s statistics indicate 318 elephants died last year as a result of the human-elephant conflict, compared to 407 killed in 2019.

In 2020, 112 human deaths were reported due to elephant attacks as against 122 in 2019.

Compared to 2019, there was a clear decline in the number of elephants killed due to the human-elephant conflict in 2020; the number of human lives lost to the Human-Elephant conflict had also declined last year, compared to 2019, Department of Wildlife Conservation Director-General Chandana Sooriyabandara said.

A Department spokesperson said that electric fencing covering some 4,500 km countrywide was one of the major reasons for the decrease in the elephant fatality rate.

Elephants were killed by gunfire, improvised explosive devices and poisoning. The first elephant death in 2021 was reported in Uva Paranagama, few days ago.

A recent research paper published by Environmental Scientist Supun Lahiru Prakash and Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando and discussed at the Committee on Public Accounts, said Sri Lanka could become the country with the highest number of elephant killings in the world.

COPA Chaired by Prof Tissa Vitharana said that Sri Lanka was just behind India when it came to the number of humans killed due to the human – elephant conflict.

The inquiry headed by Prof. Vitharana was also attended by State Ministers Dayasiri Jayasekera, Lasantha Alagiyawanna, MPs Tissa Attanayake, Gunapala Ratnasekera, Dr Upul Galappatti, Prof. Ranjith Bandara and top officials of the Ministry of Wildlife Conservation, including Secretary to the Ministry Bandula Harishchandra.

 Prof Vitarana had called for a report on how the allocation of 150 million rupees for the Civil Defence Force to take measures to prevent the human-elephant conflict had been spent, and ordered that the report be submitted to the COPA within three weeks, parliament sources said.

Sources said that the COPA had discussed the practical aspects related to the use of electrified fences to ward off wild elephants.