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Resolving human-elephant conflict: It’s High Time to Treat the Root Cause – By Bernard Fernando Photo Source:tripadvisor.com,kidadl.com Arising from requests by the President and the COPA, urging a quick and durable solution with policy changes to protect humans and elephants, the writer initially suggested to treat the crystal-clear root cause for human-elephant conflict by determining the optimum manageable number of wild elephants in our small Sri Lanka through research and exporting the excess, thereby opening an avenue to earn the much-needed foreign exchange too. I have since been informed that export of elephants has been restricted by the State as well as the rest of the world. If it is so, are we to perpetuate the hackneyed, harmful and impermanent strategies like elephant chasing crackers, electrical fences, trenches and bee boxes, etc. which have become obsolete and wasteful investments in the face of these wild elephants that have become wily and aggressive ...