Bio-fencing to mitigate human elephant conflict "The World Elephant Day"

Elephants are a cultural symbol in Sri Lanka, so the jumbos are of economic importance. They play a major role in environmental sustainability and are considered as ecosystem engineers.  Elephant Reintroduction Foundation and Canadian filmmakers Patricia Sims and Michael Clark initiated the World Elephant Day in 2011 since then the event is marked annually on August 12.The World Elephant Day has been launched to reiterate the threats to the elephant such as poaching, habitat loss, and conflict with humans, and mistreatment in captivity. World Elephant Day urges people to support organizations that are striving to stop illegal trade of the pachyderm and protect its habitats. The Day enhances to provide sanctuaries and alternative habitats to enable elephants to live freely. Elephants are playing an important role in safeguarding a sustainable biodiversity system. They create habitats for the other species in the ecosystem. When they drop waste while roaming in search of food, their dung carry seeds across a large area; feed numerous menial species, and refreshes environment when rain water absorbed by the underground through their stomping.

The most severe threat to elephants is global illegal trade. In recent years illegal trade has increased enormously so much so that more than 100 elephants loss their lives daily in some parts of the world. Asian elephants are killed for the skin as it is of commercial and medical value. Increasing human settlements have exploited the habitats of the elephant, and the situation has caused conflict between the man and the elephant. In addition, elephants have already been suffering the climate change impacts such as flood and drought.

The Climate Smart Irrigated Agriculture Project (CSIAP) of the Ministry of Agriculture mainly funded by the World Bank has pledged to improve climate resilience among farmer community thereby increasing the productivity of the irrigated agriculture. The project has planned to cover over 375,000 ha in some selected climatically vulnerable hotspot areas in 11 districts in Northern, Eastern, North Central, North Western, Southern and Uva provinces in Sri Lanka.

The human-elephant conflict is significant in all the CSIAP hotspot areas. Economic and population growth has imposed huge demands and pressure on wildlife resources and their habitats in these areas. The expansion of human settlements to the elephant habitats is a common scenario in all hotspot areas, in such a background the conflict between the man and the the animal is inevitable. The decline in elephant habitats exploits natural food sources from the animals that compels elephants to roam into nearby villages in search of food. Consequent to this, the relationship between the man and the elephant is deteriorated thereby posing a threat to both the man and the elephant. As the main objective of the CSIAP is to improve the productivity of irrigated agriculture, it is a challenge before the Project to establish a coexistence mechanism between the human beings and the elephants because the cultivation in the hotspot area is often threatened by wild animals especially the elephants. To mitigate the conflict the project has planned a direct coexistence mechanism that would bring long-term solution to human-elephant conflict. Under this plan the CSIAP is focusing on management efforts on site-specific considerations as well as the formulation and application of strategic plans at the landscape level that directly address underlying anthropogenic drivers and their Spatio-temporal variation.

The CSIAP Agro ecological Landscape Resilience Plan (ALRP) has proposed to study the seriousness of human elephant conflict over the last 10 years. Particular emphasis has been given on the number and intensity that exist in its landscape today, and how it will increase and intensify with the agricultural expansion and productivity improvement. Mapping of the potential movements of the elephants has suggested mitigation measures. These maps would help identify the intensity of the conflict and the places prone to the threat,   existing elephant corridors, and current elephant movement patterns within the area. Further, the ALRP would study the people’s attitudes on human elephant conflict, traditional knowledge and practices on mitigation such conflicts and evaluate the current status of the existing electric fences and the locations, effectiveness, and gives a recommendation for their improvements.

In order to avoid intensifying of conflict between the man and the animal, innovative landscape level strategies and 479 km long extent “Community owned village/paddy fencing” will be set up in ten districts where wildlife and humans can co-exist in the same landscape. 7265 persons will be benefited by the bio fencing to be set up at a cost of Rs.39.3 million. The CSIAP has already identified 114 units of bio fencings in hotspot areas. The bio fencing program has several activities such as community awareness on maintenance of fencing, protection of elephants and people and long-term coexistence. The CSIAP promotes the man and elephant co-existence within hotspot areas while promoting environmental conservation in the tank-based cascades.

Written by Dr. Janaka Jayawardena, Environmental and Social Safeguard Specialist, CSIAP, on behalf of the World Elephant Day.