The CSIAP plans to install 261 mobile elephant electric fencing at a cost of Rs 475m

The Climate Smart Irrigated Agriculture Project (CSIAP) funded by the World Bank has teamed up with the Centre for Conservation and Research (CCR) to install 261 mobile elephant electric fencing or seasonal electric fencing, which could be deployed by farmers at the start of cultivation and removed and stored after harvest, at a cost of Rs 475 million to mitigate the human-elephant conflict in the project area where the CSIAP is being implemented.

In order to reduce the human-elephant-conflict in the project areas,  theses electric fences are installed in the area before starting the cultivation and it will be uninstalled  again after harvesting. The Climate Smart Irrigation Agriculture Project emphasizes that the use of community-based seasonal electric fencing has been shown to be very effective in safeguarding paddy cultivations from elephant depredation. The human-elephant conflict is significant in all the CSIAP’s hotspot areas because the cultivation in the hotspot area is often threatened by wild animals, especially elephants. 

This programme is being implemented in 08 districts of Anuradhapura, Kurunegala, Puttalam, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Trincomalee, Monaragala and Hambantota where the CSIAP is being implemented. Under this project, 261 fences for 1109.3 km covering 77854.8 ha paddy fields in  128 Grama Niladhari Division areas of  34 Agrarian Service Divisions. The estimated budget for this is Rs. 475 million and 18905 farming families will benefit.

On behalf of the CSIAP, the Department of Agrarian Department (DAD) will implement an erecting electric fencing programme and for this purpose, DAD has issued a circular to establish an institutional mechanism.  The fences will be entirely powered by solar energy. This project strives to assist farmers in the project area to protect their crops from wild elephants that frequent the area – often causing heavy damage to paddy and other crops. The Versatile Field Fences are easy to erect and the farmers are taught how to make these by the CCR.

The fences stay up until the harvest is taken. Hen farmers remove them afterwards and free up land for wild animals to eat. Again, erect fences for the next crop season. The massive human-elephant conflict has now climbed to a high level, taking many human lives and elephant deaths annually making Sri Lanka the highest annual elephant deaths and second-highest human deaths due to HEC. In 2019, the human-elephant conflict reached record heights in Sri Lanka with the death of 121 people and 405 elephants.

 With this project, the CSIAP hopes to minimize the destruction of crops by a significant percentage and also diversify crops by the use of abandoned farmland due to elephant crop raiding. The project will be implemented under the guidance of Dr. Prithviraj Fernando and his team at the Centre for Conservation and Research.