HEC: A long-term solution for country’s sake – By Bernard Fernando,

HEC: A long-term solution for country’s sake – By Bernard Fernando

In 2019, the Department of Wildlife Conservation published its policy statement in the newspapers seeking public opinion. Since the long-term proposals that the writer submitted to the department, to terminate the long drawn Human Elephant-Conflict (HEC) did not receive much response, several articles, updating the facts and proposals contained therein, were published in Sinhala and English newspapers from time to time until 2022, to mobilise the public and the relevant authorities including the Director General of Wildlife.

Now, the sincere and vehement protests of the helpless farmers have come to the fore with strong media support. It is needless to say that the tragic destruction of the homes and properties of the helpless, poor farmers who make farming their sole livelihood, as well as of the crops, trees and plots of land cultivated with hard labour, has triggered great sorrow, frustration and anger among the citizenry of our small Sri Lanka.

Furthermore, we are moved with great poignancy and disappointment, hearing and witnessing the loss of life of helpless poor people and wild elephants.  Thus, it may look fair by those affected farmers and their kith and kin  who have become helpless due to this endless loss of life and property, to consider wild elephants as invaders.

Points to emphasize towards a practical long-term solution that suits a small country.

1. Sri Lanka is the smallest island country in the world, historically endowed with a wild elephant population. Therefore, due to natural increase of wild elephants, without proper management and good sterilization/birth control methods, their limited ecological space to meet their basic food and habitat needs is rapidly depleting. How many of us know that a single wild elephant requires at least 150 kilos of plant food per day working out to 840,000 kilos of food per day for approximately 5,600 elephants? How long can our small Sri Lanka, as a country still struggling to recover from economic ‘bankruptcy’, afford to meet these daily increasing basic needs of Elephants and the Humans? The attention drawn by the world-renowned actor Leonard DiCaprio to the stubborn fact that our wild elephants, which we consider as a priceless resource, are devouring junk food mixed with polythene and plastic garbage to satisfy their pangs of hunger is not only belittling for the country, but also brazenly exposes our inability to properly provide for the basic food and ecological space needs of the current wild elephant population in Sri Lanka.

2. Obviously, the space, food and environmental resources of this small land, cannot expand to cater to the growing human and Elephant populations. Thus, the human-elephant conflict (HEC) is posing a formidable challenge without a concrete solution in sight.
3. Furthermore, in the face of the continuous annual increase in the human and property losses caused by elephants, the huge amount of foreign exchange spent on anaesthetics, electric fences, firecrackers, mining equipment, transportation facilities and human labour, being used to aggressively control wild elephants, have become wasteful investments.
4. On the other hand, Sri Lankan elephants as a whole have become a valuable resource for preserving religious and cultural values ​​associated with public life as well as for the tourism industry. Thus, Elephant Conservation (EC) too has become an important issue that cannot be ignored.
5. However, the severe economic damage to property and crops, as well as the number of human/wild elephant deaths brought to limelight by the recent protests of helpless and disgruntled farmers, do not require any further evidence, commentary or research to prove the glaring and serious imbalance in the elephant-human population.
6. Nevertheless, according to the facts revealed by a recent scientific research conducted jointly by the Department of Wildlife and the University of Peradeniya, it has been accepted that our wild elephants, numbering 5,000 to 6,000, are excessive compared to the human population of more than 22 million living in a limited space of ​​​​65,610 square kilometers.

A long-term solution is imperative for country’s sake In order to provide a successful long-term solution to this tragic situation that is compounding day by day, the  writer as a citizen, submitted the following proposals to the newspapers and authorities in the years 2021/2022.

1. As the world’s smallest island country with a historical, wild elephant population, we need to determine the number of wild elephants that can be comfortably managed. In other words, it is essential to determine a comfortable total carrying capacity (TC) of elephants in the country that is sustainable for at least 10-year periods, taking into account key variables such as future elephant and human reproduction, mortality rates, food supply, habitat space, climatic, and environmental factors, potential for tourism industry, religious and cultural factors, as well as projections for allocation of space for improving future intensive food cultivation and re-forestation efforts.
2. If the decennial elephant population exceeds this limit, a policy decision should be made to export the surplus number, as far as possible in pairs, to zoos in needy countries, so that the breeding process of Sri Lankan elephants can be maintained. The wild elephant conservationists in those countries will ensure that the Sri Lankan elephant is not an endangered species. In the event of a shortage of elephants under the existing limit, an agreement with relevant countries would allow to fill the deficit by importing elephants of Sri Lankan origin from them. As a result, it will exceed the expectations under the International Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora signed in 1973. It is a known fact that elephants have been exported since ancient times.
3. Implement an appropriate short and medium-term sterilization/birth control measure which is one of the options that the writer outlined in a previous article, in the face of export restrictions.
4. Take immediate steps through our diplomatic channels to ease international restrictions on wild elephant exports/Imports through a policy decision.
5. Thereafter, take steps to negotiate with governments to export/import  elephants to zoos in needy countries by convincing them on the need for a harmonious balance in the global wild elephant population.

Benefits to the people and the country from the above solution

1) The short-term re-location of elephants as a preliminary step in research activities will save helpless, poor farmers from their current miserable plight.

2) Reduced crop destruction by elephants, will improve economic growth of the country and the rural poor.

3) Increased availability of ecological habitats for elephants and additional land for the growing human population.

4) Regulated wild elephant population will ensure adequate nutrition to them, and save the natural vegetation, Ecological balance and human food crops.

5) Facilitates regulation and protection of forest cover and re-forestation efforts.

6) Opens up a new export route to earn scarce foreign exchange.

 7) Saves foreign exchange wasted on electric fences, crackers, anesthetics, vehicles and other equipment and local labor and transport facilities of the Wildlife Department.

8) A part of the savings can be utilised for wild elephant ‘Catch, Tame and Export’ (CTE) exercises.

Abiding with the ground reality demanding a permanent solution.

We cannot escape anymore from the bitter realities prevailing on the ground. Therefore, the Hobson’s choice is to determine and maintain a mandatory ‘delicate balance’ between the growing human and elephant populations in our limited land area as aforesaid.

In this regard, we strongly believe that genuine elephant conservationists and environmentalists will be sensitive to the reality of the relevant scientific research results that are subject to time and financial constraints affecting our land at present.  

Conclusion                                                                                                            

In order to permanently end this tragedy affecting the lives of poor farmers who contribute to the country’s agricultural economy as well as that of wild elephants who provide value to our religious/ cultural practices and tourism industries, we propose that a Presidential Task Force consisting of wildlife conservation authorities/subject experts, Centre for Environmental Justice, conservationists, environmentalists and farmer representatives, be immediately appointed, to deliberate on the above-mentioned proposals, and submit a  report to the Hon. President within 3 months.

It is pertinent to state that after 13 years, the Department of Wildlife Conservation, which deployed thousands of volunteers and conducted a wild elephant census in August 2024, based on water-holes, reported that there may be minor losses in the count due to rains, but it is said that valuable indicators reflecting the health of Sri Lankan elephants such as female/male elephant ratios and number of calves will be updated.

Although there are more advanced methods, experts believe that the time and cost required to implement them are not affordable for a country like Sri Lanka. Therefore, taking such realities into consideration, the Presidential Task Force would be able to determine the number of easily manageable elephants for the next 10 years for the first time, as mentioned above, based on the figures from the latest 2024 elephant census.

It is our sincere hope that by implementing these long-term, non-violent export/import strategies, many issues related to human-elephant conflict and elephant conservation will be permanently resolved, and it will also help to remedy the food and habitat problems that have triggered the HEC, as well as the current foreign exchange/debt repayment problems.

Bernard Fernando,

Moratuwa.

Email: fernadobernard81@gmail.com