Parliament debates human-wildlife conflict as death toll rises

The growing conflict between wild animals and humans, particularly in districts where the communities' livelihood is agriculture-based, was debated in Parliament on Friday.

UPFA Digamadulla District MP Wimalaweera Dissanayaka moved an adjournment motion on the issue and spoke on the worsening situation in several districts where encroachment and attacks by wild animals including elephants, monkeys, wild boar, peacocks and giant squirrels among others, is destroying up to 25% of farmers' produce.

“The people in my area were battered by war for 30 years but now, it is a worse situation. People fear to step out of their houses after 6pm, as they can encounter wild elephants. They cannot plant a manioc tree, as it will be dug up by wild boar. The tender coconuts are eaten by the monkeys, while peacocks and giant squirrels destroy whatever little vegetation they manage to grow,” he said.

Deputy Wildlife Minister Palitha Thewarapperuma responding on behalf of the Government, said the country’s leaders have for long failed to identify the problem, particularly the human-elephant conflict, and provide a long term and sustainable solution.

“There is no proper mechanism to protect wild elephants in this country. I have identified the main problem as a severe shortage of manpower, and we have to deal with this issue,” he said.

The Minister admitted it is the hapless villagers who are affected by the elephant problem but said, any solution has to safeguard the animal as well as the humans. “Wildlife officials assigned to keep the elephants away from human habitats are ill quipped and lack resources. They lack proper vehicles, weapons, flares etc. . So how can they deal with this problem?” he asked.

The Deputy Minister said the President too has understood the gravity of this problem and agreed to deploy 3,000 Civil Defence Force personnel to help out, while the Prime Minister too had granted approval to recruit another 2,500 personnel. “The Wildlife Dept now has around 6,000 personnel and is in a better position to start dealing with the issue. Erection of 4,500 km of electric fences, to prevent elephants from entering villages, is among the new programmes to be implemented,” he said.

The Deputy Minister said the electric fences constructed to date do not meet the require standard. “Those who constructed these fences made money out of the contract. Elephants are intelligent animals and fences built to keep them away from villages have to be built with this in mind,” he added.

He said that, under the new Minister of Sustainable Development and Wildlife, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka and with him as Deputy Minister, a plan has been put in place with additional manpower to be deployed at one officer per km, and a tent set up every 3 km, with facilities including food and beverage.

Mr.Thewarapperuma said that, from 2010-2017, elephant attacks have killed 589 persons.