News
HEC: Divergent interests hinder national action plan
View(s):By Kasun Warakapitiya
The conflict among ministries, government departments, and state institutes with the Department of Wildlife Conservation had kept the human-elephant conflict (HEC) mitigation action plan in limbo, a senior wildlife official said.
According to him, the human-elephant conflict remains unresolved even though the department tries many tactics to keep humans and elephants from competing for the same areas.
In 2025, there were 438 elephant deaths and 158 human deaths.
The statistics revealed that 114 elephant deaths cannot be identified. Apart from that, 76 elephants had been gunned down, while 62 were killed by electrocution. The jawbreaker explosives (hakka-pattas) had also claimed 53 elephant lives in 2025.
The official who claimed anonymity explained that the prime elephant habitat had added fuel to the already increasing human-elephant conflict, yet the matter could only be resolved through a national-level action plan which needs the support of stakeholder ministries.
“The Agriculture Department considers wildlife as pests and only considers development of crops, the Irrigation Department only plans to expand tanks, and the Electricity Board plans new power plants, while other development and infrastructure improvement agencies only plan development,’’ he said.
The NPP, in its National Policy Framework “Thriving Nation, A Beautiful Life”, said it would control the human-elephant conflict by doing research on the elephant population, migratory patterns, and their home ranges so that science-based solutions can be implemented.
In the 2025 budget speech by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Rs 300 million was set aside for improving 5,611 km of electric fence, with 1,456 km identified for refurbishment, construction of guard posts, removal of invasive plants, grassland management, and improving water sources.
The Sunday Times learns that this allocation was made for routine maintenance of the electric fence and habitat conservation by the department.
Furthermore, though Rs 100 million was allocated in the 2025 budget to improve the capacity of 270 officers, including wildlife zonal officers, the approval came only in the 2026 budget.
In the 2026 budget speech, Rs 300 million was allocated to complete electric fencing in identified areas. This includes already completed but dilapidated, broken-down and partially built, or planned. The DWC officials added that this, too, was routine maintenance. But setting up fences to confine elephants in protected areas had not yielded results.
The Sunday Times investigation revealed that though in the 2026 budget speech it was proposed to provide special training to 5,000 civil defence officers and attach them permanently to the DWC, this too was not a new move, as already in 2025 around 3,000 such officers had been integrated.
However, setting aside Rs 100 million for finding a long-term, research-based solution beyond the construction of electric fences to reduce human-elephant conflict is a positive move, which is yet to be implemented.
Environmentalist and researcher Supun Lahiru Prakash said environmental groups and research concerned with resolving the human-elephant conflict specifically call for a presidential task force to implement the human-elephant conflict mitigation national action plan. Different government entities with different mandates would have conflicts in reaching a compromise.
The presidential task force could preside over ministries and implement the action plan, he said.
According to him, the human-elephant conflict action plan itself calls for such a task force.
The existing human-elephant conflict mitigation strategy is driving and confining elephants in protected areas, fencing them and increasing human capacity to protect the fences, which is far behind the real need and a failed strategy over decades.
DWC Director General Ranjan Marasinghe said the DWC alone cannot find solutions for the human-elephant conflict, a long-standing issue.
“The matter is socio-economic as well as political. Other ministries and departments had become stakeholders; therefore, a collective national-level action plan is needed to find solutions,’’ he said.
Mr Marasinghe noted the difficulty of reaching a compromise between varied institutions.
The Sunday Times learned through discussions that conflicts of interest arise between ministries, departments and institutes, while reluctance to accept compromises, delays actions and halts essential action plans.
The best way to say that you found the home of your dreams is by finding it on Hitad.lk. We have listings for apartments for sale or rent in Sri Lanka, no matter what locale you're looking for! Whether you live in Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Matara, Jaffna and more - we've got them all!