Plans formulated to re-establish Human-Elephant Co-Existence.

Steps have been taken to minimize the Human-Elephant conflict being experienced in certain areas, and re-establish Human-Elephant co-existence that existed in the past with a view to protect both the human beings and the elephants which are a national treasure. 

This was stated by the Minister of Agrarian Services and Wild Life Mr. S.M.Chandrasena addressing a Media Conference at the Information Department yesterday.  Delving into the history, the Minister said that in the past the elephants did not enter and destroy the villages as there were natural barriers and co-existence between elephants and the villagers.  He said the Chena cultivation existed between the forests and villages in several districts, was one such barrier and the elephants visited the Chena cultivation and returned without entering the villages because the villagers used to thwart their entry to villages with fire barricades, tree top watch-towers to chase them, with fences of Palmyra trees planted in close vicinity which the elephants could not demolish, and having a form of oral communication which the elephants understood.

The Minister also said that digging ditches and rearing bees were other forms that thwarted elephants entering the villages since the sounds emanated by the bees were unbearable to elephants.  He said that another reason for elephants coming into villages was the lack of food and water in the forest areas due to the impact of the thirty years of war during which the ponds, reservoirs and food available in the forests got destroyed by negligence and non-maintenance.  The Minister said that these sources will be revived for the elephants to find their food and water requirements in the forest areas itself in their natural environment and thereby reinvigorating the human elephant co-existence.



Mr. Chandrasena further said that Sri Lankan elephants have become a significant feature that attracts tourists.  Hence tourism is increasingly becoming a major constituent in the country’s economic development, steps have also been taken to expand elephant orphanages and improve facilities at our national parks so that the tourists can even spend several days in the national parks watching movements of our quadrupeds and the varieties of birds and flora and fauna existing in the country.