COLOMBO: Sri Lanka vowed on Thursday (Feb 27) to urgently tackle costly clashes between villagers and wild elephants after reporting the deaths of nearly 1,200 people and over 3,500 animals in a decade.
Environment minister Dammika Patabendi told parliament that they will build more electrified fences and deploy additional staff to help reduce elephant raids on villages near wildlife sanctuaries.
“We are allocating more money to reduce the human-elephant conflict, and are hopeful that within a short period of time we will be able to mitigate the situation,” Patabendi said.
Between 2015 and 2024, 1,195 people and 3,484 wild elephants were killed, he said.
In January this year, three more people and 43 elephants were killed.
Opposition legislator Nalin Bandara said the toll was “shocking” and urged authorities to protect people, while also ensuring that the wild animals were not harmed.
He noted that disposing of the carcasses of wild elephants had cost the state about US$11.6 million over a decade, while compensation to victims of elephant attacks was about US$4 million over the same period.
