Relentless Attacks On Elephant Ranges Made Worse By 2024 Budget
Shakila Ifham
January 16, 2024
Telling the government about the problem is like playing a violin to a deaf elephant as the pithy Sinhala saying goes
Sri Lanka holds the second place among the countries where the highest number of people and pachyderms die due to human-elephant conflict in the world and has continued to be in that position for many years, Environment Conservationist and Researcher Supun Lahiru Prakash said.
India leads the world when it comes to human-elephant conflict
“Last year (2023) alone we lost 476 elephants. Since 2020 the number of deaths on both sides caused by Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC) in Sri Lanka has continued to rise without any control”, he added.
The number of elephant deaths has been reported as 328 elephants in 2020, 375 in 2021, and 439 in 2022.
More recently, the environment conservationists accused current Minister of Wildlife and Forest Conservation Pavithradevi Wanniarachchi along with one of her Coordinating Secretaries, Ranjith Pushpakumara of clearing a 7 km long, (over 20-acres) forest belt at Balangoda, Allepola to build an electric fence in the Samanala Lake State Forest.
He added “The day is not far when politicians and their henchmen will encroach all the lands in this area, where about 400 elephants live, limiting the ‘Managed Elephant Reserve – Hambanthota ‘ to only a gazette notification and notice boards.”
Center for Environmental Justice led by senior lawyer Dr. Ravindranath Dabare went before the Appeals Court against the alleged land grabbing by the chief priest of Nakolagane Rajamaha Vihara in Ehetuwewa Divisional Secretariat Division, Kurunegala, North Western Province, the destruction of forests would have continued without any hesitation even by others had that step not been taken.
Budget 2024: Agriculture – The President proposes to allocate 300,000 acres from other government lands including State Plantation Corporation, Mahaweli A and B Zones, and Land Reform Commission for large-scale agriculture activities
In the agriculture section of the Budget speech 2024, President Wickremesinghe proposed to allocate 300,000 acres from other government lands including State Plantation Corporation, Mahaweli A and B Zones, and Land Reform Commission for large-scale agriculture activities.
“We do not know how much more elephant home ranges will be damaged and whether the government assessed the impact of such mega-scale projects on human-elephant conflict. These are just a few examples,” he added.
He stressed that authorities do not seem to be making any genuine efforts to halt the quantitative and qualitative decline and fragmentation of elephant home ranges.
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