• DWC faced with severe shortage of field officers 

Sri Lanka’s Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC) continues to escalate due to habitat loss and unregulated land use by humans, while the primary response by the Government – elephant drives – has drawn criticism from environmentalists and advocacy groups, who argue that such measures are unsystematic and lack scientific grounding.

Environmentalists in particular have opposed the operation to drive wild elephants harming cultivations in the Anuradhapura District into the Wilpattu National Park, instead advocating ‘scientific’ approaches as alternatives to these conventional, often politically popular methods.

However, the Government response to this has been that elephant drives are a temporary measure to mitigate the rising number of human and elephant fatalities, further emphasising that it is in the process of consulting specialists to develop long-term solutions for addressing the conflict.

Environmentalists have been advocating the adoption of structured and scientific approaches to address HEC, urging the Government to move away from ad hoc methods often preferred by local stakeholders.

Issues with elephant drives in SL

Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) Chairperson Hemantha Withanage shared concerns about the current elephant drive in Anuradhapura. 

According to Withanage, Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) officers had initially planned to relocate 19 elephants that had been trapped near a hotel. However, the drive had reportedly expanded to include over 60 elephants being moved towards the Wilpattu National Park.

He expressed uncertainty regarding the level of coordination involved in the operation, suggesting that some local wildlife officers may be leading the effort without explicit authorisation from higher authorities. Withanage also noted the potential influence of local involvement in shaping the scope of the drive, raising questions about whether adequate resources and trained personnel were available for such an undertaking.

Withanage further highlighted the scarcity of food and water in national parks as the primary reason for the return of relocated elephants, a factor that is often misunderstood by officials. 

“What they are attempting, without fully understanding the implications, is to drive all the elephants into national parks and then install electric fences, assuming this will resolve the issue. However, elephants will not simply stay confined within the parks. To keep them there, it is essential to provide adequate food and water,” he said.

He pointed out that effective management within these national parks required significant resources, noting: “This includes deploying numerous vehicles across multiple locations to supply suitable grass and water regularly.”

The CEJ Chair highlighted that the root concern was that 70% of elephants lived outside the national parks, which posed a major challenge. Therefore, he pointed out that if the goal was to relocate this 70% back into the parks, the current mechanisms in place were inadequate and unlikely to succeed.

In addition to food and water, Withanage noted that some electric fences had been placed between forest areas, creating boundaries that prevented elephants from travelling across them. He suggested connecting all the corridors between the forest areas by removing some of these electric fences, which were built between wildlife areas and forests. 

“It is important to remove all these barriers as well as all the people who have encroached on these forest areas,” he said.

Withanage referred to an incident where an area near the Yala National Park, allocated for corporate forestry, had been illegally cleared. Originally designated for neem tree cultivation with Government ownership retained, the land had been sold and the new owners had cut down the trees. He highlighted that it was important to recognise that such activities contributed directly to HEC. 

“When adjacent forest areas are destroyed, elephants lose their natural habitats and are forced to encroach on human settlements. People who engage in these destructive practices cannot then complain when elephants move into their lands, as it is the result of habitat loss caused by human actions.”

Withanage pointed out that elephant drives typically required over a year of planning and must account for seasonal factors and the care of mothers and their calves. 

However, poor planning and lack of understanding can lead to disastrous outcomes. For instance, a poorly managed elephant drive in Galgamuwa resulted in the death of young elephants and severe exhaustion among others. 

“There were some drives in the early days from the Mattala area to Lunugamwehera where many elephants died. You cannot have an elephant drive just because there is demand from the people or local politicians,” Withanage stressed. 

Wildlife and Nature Protection Society (WNPS) Immediate Past President Jehan CanagaRetna, speaking to The Sunday Morning, also pointed out that elephant drives had not been successful in the past. 

According to him, this is clear through the data collected from collared elephants. “The data shows that they return to their original habitat due to the unsuitability of where they have been driven to,” he said.

Furthermore, when most drives happen, it is not the so-called ‘problematic elephant’ that gets driven but the herds with mothers and calves. He added: “The mothers and calves are the least of the problems for humans. The elephants that are forced to become crop raiders are, in most instances, male elephants.” Therefore, he noted that driving away female elephants and their calves would not solve the problem.

“We refer to the fact that past elephant drives have not been successful and believe that it is not a method of solving the current HEC,” he reiterated.

DWC staffing shortages 

Withanage further observed that the DWC currently faced significant challenges, including a lack of trained officers and inadequate resources: “While the department reportedly has around 600 vehicles, the staffing gaps remain unaddressed. Additionally, untrained personnel are tasked with maintaining electric fences.” 

Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Deputy Minister of Environment Anton Jayakody highlighted a significant shortage of field officers at the DWC, noting that the department was currently working to address this issue. “There is a huge shortage of officers and we need to discuss how to fill these gaps,” he said.

He also pointed out the need to recruit and train new officers, particularly for higher-ranking positions. “The higher ranks in the hierarchy, above wildlife guards, need to be filled with newly recruited officers who undergo specialised training.”

Jayakody noted the challenges involved in ensuring that officers were properly trained to handle mobile units, especially during night shifts. “When conducting patrols, at least one experienced officer is required in the vehicle. Without proper training, officers will hesitate to carry out their duties, which could lead to failure.”

CanagaRetna also noted that while the DWC was knowledgeable, it was not equipped in two areas. “The first is manpower; the department is completely understaffed for the problem we have in hand in the country. Secondly, it needs more resources and equipment, which has sadly been a perennial problem for the department for years,” he noted.

Impact of outdated agriculture system

Meanwhile, Withanage pointed out that the demand for forest land for cultivation had also become a significant issue. “Once elephant drives are conducted, the cleared areas will be distributed to cultivators, leading to further encroachment on forest lands,” he stated. 

He criticised Sri Lanka’s agriculture system as inefficient, being rooted in ancient farming methods, leading to the loss of vast amounts of land for agricultural purposes. “The Wattegama and Kotiyagala forest reserves, covering 25,000 hectares, have been completely lost. In Kebiliththa, 12,500 hectares have been cleared.

“There are also seven maize cultivators in the Trikonamadu area and five to six cultivators in the Pollebadda area. They are destroying ancient forests by cutting down 1,500-2,000-year-old trees and replacing them with maize crops, which are grown solely for the poultry industry, providing only chicken and eggs in return,” charged Withanage. 

He further argued that this destruction was unsustainable, as it offered no long-term benefits. “All this is being destroyed without accounting for the environmental costs of maize cultivation. After 10-15 years, the area will be abandoned and the process will repeat, moving deeper into the forest.”

He emphasised that Sri Lanka’s forest areas were limited, suggesting that it would be more practical to import maize rather than continue this cycle of deforestation, adding: “If this continues, environmental costs of these services must be factored into the price of maize, since otherwise the issue will not be addressed correctly.”

Withanage highlighted that Sri Lanka would need to reduce the cultivation area by using modern agricultural methods to prevent the loss of natural habitats to agriculture. “If people practice proper maize cultivation, they can earn the same amount from 2-3 acres as they would from over 15 acres,” he said.

Temporary measures for elephant drives

Deputy Minister Jayakody meanwhile assured that the current elephant drives were only temporary measures. He explained that the decision to conduct these drives had been made following a meeting to address the escalating issue of human and elephant fatalities. 

“At the moment, we felt the need to push the elephants to the nearest national parks and increase monitoring,” he said. 

However, he emphasised that the Government was aware that this was not a long-term solution, briefly outlining future plans: “We need to enrich habitats so that they can become sustainable living spaces for elephants.” 

Jayakody further noted that several proposals had been discussed with researchers, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), and wildlife experts, leading to ongoing discussions aimed at finding a comprehensive solution.

He further stated that the Government had plans to begin enriching elephant habitats once the rainy season arrived. Prior to this, however, it will establish a unified decision-making mechanism based on data and experiences gathered from wildlife experts.

Referring to returning elephant habitats that had previously been illegally encroached, CanagaRetna said: “It is very challenging to make available elephant habitats that have been illegally encroached. This is why we called it a Human-Elephant Conflict. Unfortunately, the governments of the past 70 years or so are responsible for human movement without any structured plan, which is the key reason we have this problem today.” 

He added: “Today, we say that only scientific solutions must be used to work on short-, medium-, and long-term solutions. The National Action Plan must be re-looked at and a committee re-appointed so that science-based solutions could be found.”

Collaboration between departments

Jayakody made it clear that HEC could not be tackled through a single project, instead requiring a multifaceted strategy. “The Department of Forest Conservation works according to its own plan, but animals are relevant to wildlife management, so coordination between departments is essential,” he said.

“We need to open up the elephant corridors, which are often blocked by human settlements and agricultural activities. This issue has become increasingly complex because the responsibility for tackling HEC has been placed solely with the DWC, when multiple departments and ministries should collaborate on this matter,” the Deputy Minister elaborated. 

He further pointed out specific examples of Government actions that had complicated the issue, such as resettling people in elephant corridors in Moragahakanda without considering the impact on elephants.

He confirmed that discussions were ongoing with groups that had conducted research on this issue, with multiple proposals under consideration. “None of these proposals can be discarded; we need to integrate all of them into a unified plan to make decisions,” he said.