• All Island Wildlife Guard Officers’ Union Prez U.J. Senarath notes human resources-based constraints, uncomfortable work conditions, & inconvenient work hours 

As much as Sri Lanka can be proud of its natural resources, the country is also facing a crisis in terms of managing its wildlife resources in a manner that is beneficial to the wildlife and humans. On the one hand, various manmade and natural issues are affecting these resources, while on the other hand, the lack of resources has made wildlife officers’ job of dealing with those issues more difficult.

Explaining this, wildlife officers note that the lack of human resources is among the biggest challenges faced by them. This week, the All-Island Wildlife Guard Officers’ Union President, U.J. Senarath, told The Daily Morning that while the cadre needs to be improved considerably, it is also crucial to ensure that the existing officials are encouraged and supported to do their job properly. For a job that involves a great deal of risks and difficulties and is not based on comfortable working conditions or office hours, that is not too much to ask for, according to him.

Following are the excerpts from the interview:

There are many reports about wildlife offices being understaffed, and it affecting the officers’ job, especially when it comes to duties pertaining to the human-elephant conflict (HEC). What is the ground level situation in this regard?

The Wildlife Conservation Department alone looks after 13-14% of the country’s lands and also wildlife-related crimes throughout the country, even outside protected areas. To do this, we have only around 800 field officers. Not only the HEC, recently identified conflicts involving leopards and monkeys are also concerns, and they are also managed by these 800 officers. This cadre is not adequate. Various groups such as the Civil Security Department (CSD) officials have from time to time been appointed to assist with our duties such as maintaining electric fences built to stop wild elephants. The nature of the job of the majority of these 800 officials is such that we do not have shifts to work. Our duty between two holidays is an ongoing one. We perform our duties whenever there is a requirement, day in and day out. The lack of human resources is one of the key issues faced by the Department. Earlier, there was an allowance for performing risky or arduous duties which was equal to the salary. In 2010, at the unions’ request, it was increased to Rs. 2,500. However, despite many types of officials working with inadequate human resources resulting in the existing officials having to work day in and day out, that allowance has not been increased yet, which the officials find discouraging. When the war was in progress, it was the forces that faced the highest risks to lives. But, in the present context, it is us who are facing the highest risks to life (due to their job). We cannot refuse to work merely because the allowance has not been increased. Even amidst these difficulties, we do our job. There are places at which the basic facilities to effectively perform our duties are not available, and also times when even the available resources such as vehicles cannot be fully utilised because of the lack of human resources. 

As a wildlife officer, what do you think about the status quo of the long-drawn-out HEC?

The HEC, in my opinion, is a conflict of three parties which involves wild elephants, residents of the area, and wildlife officials. All these three parties have been rendered helpless when it comes to the HEC. Last year (in 2023), around 480 wild elephants and around 180 ordinary citizens have lost their lives, while around one to two wildlife officers also lose their lives a year. I think that if we truly want to find effective solutions to the HEC, both the Department and the residents of the affected areas such as farmers have to put in equal efforts. Even when electric fences were strengthened, wild elephants broke into villages. When CSD officials were deployed, increasing the number of persons managing the electric fences, elephants still broke into villages. Then, multi-purpose officials were utilised, increasing the cadre further. But, elephants continue to do the same thing. In this context, while acknowledging that only a small number of wild elephants break into villages and electric fences are one of the effective way to stop elephants, we should understand that this not just an issue about maintaining the electric fences, but also an issue about properly identifying the areas where wild elephants tend to break through the electric fences and deploying personnel to those areas methodically. Increasing the number of people maintaining the electric fences has not brought about any special additional advantage.

Recently, a decision has been taken to provide farmers with firearms. What do you think about it?

Giving farmers firearms is a foolish decision. If what needs to be done is chasing away wild elephants, I don’t know how effective the method of using firearms is to do that. But, what I can say is that it has the potential to increase the number of elephant deaths. These are not plans devised based on proper research. Thoughts that come to politicians’ minds are implemented. If this decision was implemented, it will likely result in adverse impacts. When it comes to getting the farmers’ support to manage the HEC, especially concerning the electric fences, it was once proposed to set up teams of seven members for each Grama Niladhari division in which there are electric fences in order to chase wild elephants away. It was decided to recruit farmers for this purpose. If one comes and requests ‘aliwedi’ (elephant crackers), there is no system to ascertain whether the person genuinely faces wild elephant related issues and whether the person will truly use those ‘aliwedi’ to chase away wild elephants. If one requests, we provide ‘aliwedi’, at times because we don’t want to be accused of failing to provide at least ‘aliwedi’. As part of the said plan, we decided to provide such only to one of the seven team members who have a responsibility to chase away wild elephants using those in their respective areas. The Department’s duty is to monitor and facilitate this process. The truth is, wild elephants tend to break into areas they are used to breaking into. However, we have stopped such on many occasions, and have sometimes taken wild elephants back to their habitats. The electric fences need to be guarded and maintained properly, and at the same time, both villagers and wildlife officers should collaboratively work. If we could do that, we would be able to significantly reduce HEC incidents.

In your opinion, what wildlife-related laws and/or policies need to be improved or be done away with?

The law declares a one mile buffer zone around national parks. However, some buffer zones are used for chena cultivations. During the dry season, elephants see these cultivations, some of which are located right on the other side of electric fences, and try to break in. Therefore, I think that the laws that apply to buffer zones should be strengthened in order to limit such farming activities. That would help us control to some extent the wild elephants breaking into villages. At the same time, some villages depend on various activities taking place in national parks such as hunting, illegal fishing activities, and collecting bee’s honey. These activities also disturb wild elephants and influence them to break into villages. Taking this into account, the Department launched a programme to uplift the livelihoods of those that depend on national parks in the said manner. Although the Department provides resources, the beneficiaries should also make an effort to make it successful. But, our people are used to looking for ways to make money easily and are not interested in continuing hard yet effective programmes, and therefore, regardless of our efforts, those types of programmes come to a halt halfway through the process. Because of that, it was not possible to achieve the projected benefits.

Do you think that the HEC is really the most pressing wildlife-related issue at present? What other concerns should receive attention?

People talk more about the HEC than about other issues, firstly because elephants are big and secondly because wildlife conservation is centred around elephants. In addition, there are other animals that are facing issues to a concerning extent. However, no one talks about these animals. Due to the lack of resources, despite practicality, certain decisions have to be taken. For example, recently, a decision was implemented at the Yala National Park where jeep drivers were allowed to take tourists into the Park on their own. This driver has no obligation to the Department. His intention is to make some money, and his job depends on how much he earns. However, previously, wildlife officers or voluntary guides were sent with these teams, and they had a responsibility to bring the team back safely and to prevent team members from unnecessarily wandering. This decision was taken due to the lack of officials.