News
Unplanned land use and elephant encroachment
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- A motor cyclist abandoned his vehicle in a desperate to escape a herd of elephants crossing the road
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- Two young bull elephants fight during the mating season
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- This baby elephant was rescued with great difficulty by officers of the Wildlife Department
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- This elephant had fallen victim to a hunter’s trap
Unplanned and illegal utilisation of forest reserve land has led to an exacerbation in the human-elephant conflict in the Hambantota district.
The loss of elephant habitat due to short sighted use and misappropriation of forest reserve is forcing the elephants to encroach into populated areas while transit to their breeding grounds or to forage for food.
An elephant calf which had fallen into an irrigation well on the 13th near Nagrawawa area was rescued by Wildlife Department Officers with much difficulty. In a similar effort later last month two Wildlife Rangers were injured while attempting to rescue another calf which had also fallen into a pit.
Yet another elephant was found with injuries sustained after being caught in a trap set by a hunter. However, as of time of reporting Wildlife Rangers were unable to reach the animal in distress.
The main reason for the elephant-human conflict in the Hambantota district has been the unplanned use of land.
Some years ago a suggestion was made to settle the problem by allocating 120,000 hectares of land as an Elephant Management reserve.
Unfortunately today the only visible sign of the proposal is its name-board.