Sri Lanka human-elephant conflict

[Guest guest]

Moving Finger special

Lionel Wijesiri

Daily News, LK

 

Living in peace with the elephant

 

Endangered species: Wild Life Department sources

recently revealed that the number of deaths in

human-elephant conflicts in Sri Lanka has increased

rapidly. Last year 117 elephants were killed by

people, while the elephants killed 68 people. During

the first quarter of 2006 some 39 elephant deaths and

16 human deaths were reported.

 

Although there is no accurate census available, it is

estimated that about 2500-3000 elephants are still

found in the wild, and a further 500 are in captivity.

(It is interesting to note that around 1900, more than

10,000 elephants were found all over the island).

Since 1950, it is likely that more than 4,000

elephants would have been lost as a direct consequence

of the conflict between man and elephant.

 

Fading habitats

 

What is really happening? It is obvious that the

elephant is really running out of space in Sri Lanka.

Most of the protected areas inhabited by elephants are

small, less than 1,000 sq. km in size, nevertheless

elephants, especially the bulls, may range over

hundreds of square kilometres in the course of a

season.

 

Today the elephants are increasingly hemmed in by

human settlements and man-made obstacles like electric

fences. The area they inhabit is becoming increasingly

crowded with people and their crops, and as the

elephants lose more and more of their territory, they

are competing with people for natural resources.

 

Their sheer size and gargantuan appetite mean that

elephants and people cannot live together where

agriculture is the dominant form of land use, unless

the damage they cause to farmers can be compensated.

 

There are no easy solutions for resolving the human

elephant conflict in Sri Lanka. Much will depend on

how people perceive the worth of the elephant. We, Sri

Lankans were having a long cordial association with

the elephants.

 

During the reign of our ancient kings, elephants were

tamed and used in large numbers for the awesome

construction work. Large palaces, temples and vast

reservoirs had been built with the aid of elephants.

Those were good days when forest cover in the country

was exceedingly high and both man and elephant had

enough land to share without invading the other.

 

Today the elephants are increasingly hemmed in by

human settlements and man-made obstacles like electric

fences. The area they inhabit is becoming increasingly

crowded with people and their crops, and as the

elephants lose more and more of their territory. They

are competing with people for natural resources.

 

The elephants make forays into human settlements when

crops are ripening and often eat or trample a family's

entire crop. A common response to raiding elephants is

to fire at the elephants with guns, or to request

rangers from the Department of Wildlife to come and

remove them (either by chasing or shooting). As a

result, many elephants have been shot at and others

injured or killed by gunfire. Those elephants that

escape or survive with bullet wounds are more

aggressive than ever, and know that humans are the

source of their fear.

 

The people also display very little knowledge of

natural history of the area and minimal or no

understanding of basic animal behaviour and biology.

 

It appears that lack of understanding and lack of calm

controlled exposure to elephants has exacerbated fear

and hostility towards elephants.

 

The most likely outcomes are lethal removal of the

elephants (by killing them), capture and translocation

of the elephants, or establishment of refuges for the

elephants. Each of these proposals obviously has

drawbacks. Killing the elephant makes surviving

elephants even more dangerous.

 

Removal of elephants either by killing or capture

removes an important population of elephants that may

still remember migration routes.

 

Living in harmony

 

Some wildlife managers now believe that the key to

finding a long-term solution to the elephant problem

is to ensure that people derive some benefit from

their presence in areas where humans and elephants do

overlap.

 

Our Department of Wildlife Conservation has plans to

promote economic activities that would enable the

local communities to derive some tangible benefits

from the presence of elephants in their neighbourhood.

e.g. manufacture of paper from elephant dung, organic

farming using elephant dung, production of biogas

using a combination of elephant and cattle dung etc.

 

Although the threat of extinction looms high for our

elephant, unfortunately, our economic situation has

made it practically impossible for the Wild Life

Department to manage their resources or to enforce

laws effectively.

 

If our elephants are to survive in perpetuity, experts

believe that three major challenges need to be met

head-on:

 

1. Protect the remaining elephant populations and

their habitat against further loss by creating and

managing special protected areas. (For example,

perpetrators of elephant killings should be severely

punished, and not with a simple fine of Rs. 2,500).

 

2. Promote co-existence between people and elephants

in and around these protected areas by developing and

implementing sound administrative practices.

 

3. Restore the congenial relationship that existed

between our people and elephants for thousands of

years through education and awareness programmes.

 

In the final analysis, all conservation efforts would

be futile without the support of the Government,

people and NGOs, financially and otherwise. That is

the key to the solution.

 

http://www.dailynews.lk/2006/06/06/fea06.asp

 

 

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