SL holds highest number of elephant deaths globally

Sri Lanka holds the highest number of elephant deaths globally due to human-elephant conflicts reported in the country annually, the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) said on Wednesday (9).

The Committee also revealed that Sri Lanka is ranked second in reporting the highest number of human deaths due to the same cause.

Speaking at COPA meeting, Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando, a specialist in human-elephant conflict said that: “Even though the average number of elephant deaths due to the human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka is 272 per year, 407 elephants have died during the past year, and although the average number of human deaths due to human-elephant conflict is 85 per year, 122 people have died in the past year”.

Taking this situation into account, the COPA directed the Department of Wildlife Conservation to set up a National Coordinating Committee with all relevant institutions as soon as possible to reduce the human-elephant conflict.

The committee said that: “although 4211 km of elephant fences had been constructed by 2016 to control the human-elephant conflict, they had become inactive in a short period of time due to improper maintenance. Although 86 million rupees is spent annually for the maintenance of the electric fence, the committee pointed out the need for the Wildlife Conservation Department to monitor whether this maintenance is being carried out on a daily basis”.

Furthermore, the Civil Defense Force had also carried out maintenance of the fence, and Rs. 150 million has been provided to them for the year 2020 without any agreement. However, steps should be taken to set up an agreement for this purpose as soon as possible, the Committee noted.