Wildlife officials scratching their heads about wounded raider

The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) is debating how to translocate the injured tusker ‘Agbo’ as it continues to roam restlessly around villages in the Kekirawa-Thirappane area.

Driving the pachyderm away from villages is complicated as it is reluctant to leave, said DWC Director General Chandana Sooriyabandara. The animal has lost its fear of humans and cannot be driven back into the wild. There are practical difficulties in trying to fence the animal in, in a protected area.

The one option is to physically translocate it, but veterinary surgeons say that, as it still has open wounds on its front legs, the elephant cannot be tethered with ropes to be transported by lorry. But the DWC has to think of a solution as villagers have protested and repeatedly complained that the tusker is entering areas populated by humans. It has also developed a liking for cultivated crops.

“People created an opinion that the tusker was malnourished and wasting away and therefore needed to be fed nutritious food even as DWC carried out treatment for the wounds in its legs,” Mr. Sooriyabandara said. “As there was so much pressure in this regard, the DWC, too, was forced to allow people to feed the animal.”

This has had the obvious adverse repercussions of the animal losing fear of humans

and venturing into villages. The DG has asked people to keep their distance and to avoid going close to take photographs.

“The animal's behaviour has changed and it is refusing to return to normal behaviour,” he warned. “That is why we urge the public not to hinder our duties. They must not feed any wild animals because they then adapt to cultivated fruits and enter inhabited areas and eat crops.”

Meanwhile, environmentalists said the DWC should implement the National Human Elephant Conflict Mitigation Plan. Convener of the

Biodiversity Conservation Research Circle Supun Lahiru Prakash said that the DWC and other State and non-State stakeholders should adopt a holistic approach to resolving the human-elephant conflict.

Even though the national plan was released in 2020, the requisite presidential task force was not appointed.

Elephants usually do not change their behaviour due to being fed by people, Mr. Prakash insisted, claiming that the DWC’s complaints are baseless.

“Elephants roam into villages if the villages are in their path,” he said. “If there is easy

access to food and water, elephants will make use of that regardless of whether it is a village or forest.”

The translocation of elephants is not a solution to the human-elephant conflict as they often return to their original home ranges, or die within the protected areas to which they are moved, Mr. Prakash said. Even the Horowpathana elephant holding grounds have failed.

Tusker ‘Agbo’ is not in a condition to be transported in a lorry and his life could be in danger if this was attempted, he maintained.