Environmentalists have raised serious concerns about the actions being taken by the Government to address the Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC) in Sri Lanka.
Following the relocation of elephants to Yala and the announcement by Minister of Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs Ananda Wijepala that all elephants in the Kurunegala District would be moved to national parks through a military operation and confined there, environmentalists have expressed concerns about the safety of the animals while questioning the overall effectiveness of this approach.
Over the past few decades, the Government’s approach has remained largely unchanged, continuing to push elephants into increasingly smaller pockets of forest cover, thereby creating unsustainable conditions for the animals.
This is primarily done through elephant drives, which involve large groups of people walking through forests to chase the elephants away with loud noises, including firecrackers and the firing of gunshots into the sky.
Additionally, electric fences are constructed along the boundaries of these protected areas to prevent the elephants from returning to their original habitats.
Commenting on Government measures, senior environmental lawyer Dr. Jagath Gunawardana said that the animals first become frightened and are driven away with loud firecrackers that harm their hearing due to which they end up deaf as well, while the stress and injuries sustained may induce other problems and sometimes lead to the death of the animal as well.
Wildlife and Nature Protection Society (WNPS) Immediate Past President Jehan CanagaRetna noted that elephant drives had not been successful in the past.
“When you conduct an elephant drive, it is necessary to collar the leader of the herd to monitor the movements of the herd. In the past, elephant drives have not been very successful, with collared elephants often returning to the locations they were driven from,” he said.
During the Mahaweli Development Project – a programme launched in the 1960s to develop agricultural land and establish hydroelectric power facilities, spanning 39% of the country’s area – the Wildlife Department carried out a massive elephant drive.
This effort relocated 130 elephants to the Wilpattu National Park, but about 50 of them eventually returned to their original habitat.
Similarly, in 1988, 150 elephants were moved to the Maduru Oya National Park, yet over 100 made their way back.
While no large-scale drives have been conducted since 2006, smaller-scale operations are carried out in response to public complaints, which only increase the aggressiveness of elephants and expose them to extreme stress.
He stressed that ad hoc elephant drives were not effective and science should be at the forefront if an elephant drive was necessary. Additionally, he noted that elephants should not be driven into a national park to the point where its carrying capacity is exceeded.
“There is a carrying capacity; that is, the maximum number of elephants a national park can support based on available food sources,” he explained.
CanagaRetna strongly discouraged the use of elephant drives on an ad hoc basis, instead advocating a review of the national action plan and its recommendations. He also called for the reappointment of a committee to oversee these efforts.
“If there is still a need to carry out a drive, they should collar one or two elephants during its process to monitor and understand what happens after the drive,” he suggested.
He further recommended that the Minister appoint an advisory committee that has evidence-based knowledge to help make the appropriate decision, taking HEC issues into consideration.
Meanwhile, the Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) has called on President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, via an official letter, to put an immediate end to informal practices across the country that are harming wildlife and to adopt a more scientific approach to environmental management.
In the letter, the CEJ proposed convening a high-level discussion involving environmentalists, relevant Government agencies, and other stakeholders to develop a comprehensive programme. This initiative aims to build consensus and lay the groundwork for effective action.
The CEJ also stressed the urgent need to halt illegal activities such as elephant hunting and the trapping of elephants and other wildlife.
“Recently, protests have been taking place in different areas, seemingly led by people connected to the current Government. Using these protests, politicians and their supporters, along with district and divisional secretaries, are carrying out unplanned and unscientific activities.
“These include chasing away elephants and capturing them without approval from the Department of Wildlife Conservation. Such actions put both people and animals in danger. There are also reports that the lands cleared of elephants might be given for commercial use,” CEJ Senior Adviser Hemantha Withanage said.
He said that these activities contradicted the National Environmental Policy introduced by the President through the National People’s Power movement.
Withanage urged the Government to address this issue as a priority, protect the lives of wildlife, and heed the advice of scientists, experts, and environmentalists in resolving conflicts between farming communities and wildlife.