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| Results of Human Elephant Comflicts |
Human-Elephant Conflict(HEL) reached record
heights in Sri Lanka with the death of 121 people and 405 elephants in 2019. At
present Sri Lanka records the highest human-elephant conflict in the world. For
over 70 years, human-elephant conflict mitigation in Sri Lanka has been based
on attempting to confine elephants to protected areas. This effort has
completely failed and currently, 70% of elephant range remains outside protected
areas. With elephants and people residing in the same landscape over 44% of the
land area of Sri Lanka, human-elephant conflict is a problem faced by the vast
majority of farming communities in the dry zone. Today HEC is a major conservation, socio-economic and political issue in the country.
Attempts to confine all elephants to protected areas have failed because it is biologically impossible, as the protected areas already carry the number of elephants they can support. Thus, successful human-elephant conflict mitigation requires that people, their crops and property be effectively safeguarded from elephant depredation. Traditional crop guarding and management methods such as chasing and driving elephants are confrontational. Hence, make elephants aggressive towards humans, leading to escalation of conflict. Therefore, it is critical to use non-confrontational methods in preventing elephant depredation.
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| Erecting a sesional cultivation fence |
Community-based electric fencing is
the most effective non-confrontational method of protecting crops, home gardens
and settlements. Community-based fences are entirely constructed and maintained
by people who face elephant depredation and provide immediate and sustainable
relief to them.
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| Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando |
The appropriate model of
community-based electric fencing for seasonal agriculture such as paddy fields
are ‘seasonal-fences’. They are constructed by farmers when they start the
cultivation, removed at harvest and stored till the next cultivation season. The
method has been developed by the Centre for Conservation and Research (CCR) and
piloted in over 40 paddy fields in the Kurunegala, Hambanthota, Anuradhapura
and Trincomalee districts. Some of these pilot fences have been in use for
periods of up to 12 years and have proved the effectiveness and sustainability
of the method. Therefore, the next step is to broad-base the implementation of
this approach.
The Climate Smart Irrigated
Agriculture Project (CSIAP) is working with CCR to broad base and implement
seasonal paddy-field fences through the Department of Agrarian Development.
This initiative is expected to bring much needed relief to paddy-farmers from
elephant depredation. The CSIAP is planning to facilitate
the farmers to protect their crops, harvest and farmlands from wild elephants and
to safeguard lives of both humans and animals.
By
Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando, Chairman, Trustee and Scientist, CCR, Sri Lanka.
Images: curtesy of CCR
