News
Trenches and fences won’t deter jumbos searching for food and water
Wildlife and forest officers say the arid weather is posing greater challenges to managing the forest reserves and parks.
Galgamuwa Wildlife Range officer Nimal Banadara Ratnayake said the elephants in the remaining forest areas in his range enter villages when water and food become scarce.
“These days the elephants use up the water remaining in the tanks and stay within the forested areas. But, when the food supply becomes scarce, they enter farmlands and villages in search of food,” he said.
Although villagers complain of damage, chasing elephants away is not a solution, he said.
“We suggest the authorities start a reforestation programme and increase the availability of food for animals. Then the animals do not need to come into areas where humans live.’’
Another official who claimed that the authorities were not interested in such plans but were only interested in erecting fences, carrying out elephant drives and digging up trenches, further worsening the problems that elephants and humans confront.
Meegalawa Range officer I.M.G Seneviratne said that encroachment of land by villagers and clearing of forested areas had forced elephants to break electric fences and enter villages.
“Kahalla Pallakale reserve is within my area there are about 50 to 60 elephants, even though they quench their thirst from Siyambalangamuwa tank and other reservoirs in the area, there is less edible shrubs for elephants,” he said.
He added that when elephants feel the stress of food shortage they pull down the fences.
“There is a plan to grow edible plants within the reserve. However, implementation takes time,” he said.
The convener of the Biodiversity Conservation and Research Circle, Supun Lahiru Prakash said the Government does not have a real need to solve the human-elephant conflict (HEC) in Sri Lanka.
Although Sri Lanka is the country reporting the highest number of elephant deaths and second highest number of human deaths due to the conflict in the world, the comprehensive action plan prepared by the multi-stakeholder expert committee had been pigeonholed for more than a year now, he said.
HEC is a serious socioeconomic, environmental and political issue in more than 130 divisional secretariat areas in 19 districts of Sri Lanka. About 70% of elephant home ranges in the country lie out of the protected areas.
However, the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) does not like to think out of protected areas to mitigate HEC. That is why they try to confine elephants to protected areas with electric fencing. Now they dig trenches in addition to electric fences. We have more than enough scientific evidence that confining elephants into the protected area is not a sustainable solution to HEC.
Elephants have a strong bond with their home ranges and it is not possible to remove them from their traditional home ranges. If we try to do so forcibly, only the herds consisting of females and young could be driven and problem causing males remain and continue the damages. Therefore, there is no impact on HEC mitigation. On the other hand, herds driven to the protected areas are suffering from a lack of resources and starve to death. It badly affects elephant conservation in Sri Lanka.
Almost all the mitigation measures of the DWC are ineffective and outdated.
However, the department repeatedly employs an ineffective and outdated method to mitigate HEC and waste public funds. And humans and elephants are the victims of this bad game. This could have happened, because their priority would not be a sustainable solution, but defrauding public funds as the auditor general exposed such corruption in the Horowpathana elephant holding ground.
We need to understand that HEC mitigation should be an integrated effort that is beneficial for both humans and the elephants, because we have to protect both particles in this conflict. Different parties have different roles to play to make this joint effort a success. Wildlife conservation and management as well as human-wildlife conflict management is a scientific endeavour, yet this science is allergic to the authorities including the DWC.
Meanwhile, the forest department said protective measures are being taken.
Conservator of Forests, Nishantha Edirisinghe told the Sunday Times that officials have been sent to maintain fire belts and are prepared to act on any fire response.
“The stakeholders such as the police, tri-forces, too, are involved in dousing forest fires,’’ he said.
Human activities in sensitive areas are restricted to protect endemic plants.
The Director General of DWC, Chanadana Sooriyabandara said there is no shortage of water and food within the park. During the drought in October, watering holes and tanks in the park are filled up using solar powered water pumps.
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