Human – elephant conflict

Source:Island

Electric fencing, white elephant

The Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) revealed that although Rs. 490 million had been spent on building electric fences between 2019 and 2020, there had been no decrease in the incidents of the human-elephant conflict.

The cost of constructing the electric fences in 2019 to prevent human-elephant conflict was Rs. 275,447,639 and the amount spent for this purpose in the year 2020 was Rs. 221,505,818. The total length of the electric fences was 4,756 km.

However, as of March 23, 2021, 28 humans and 83 elephant were killed due to human-elephant conflict.

Chairman of the Committee Prof. Tissa Vitarana, State Ministers Dayasiri Jayasekara, Lasantha Alagiyawanna, Prasanna Ranaweera, Members of Parliament Tissa Attanayake, Niroshan Perera, Mohamed Muzammil, S. Sridharan, Dr. Upul Galappaththi, B.Y.G Ratnasekera, Weerasumana Weerasinghe, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya and government officials were present at the meeting.