Private insurance to compensate farmers hit by wild elephant attacks

Data shows that during 20112015, elephant attacks have led to 414 human deaths and 6320 incidents of property related damage in Sri Lanka. “We have also lost 1147 elephants during the same period on an average of 230-240 a year. The break down is about four elephants a week which is very alarming,” said Dr. Dushni Weerakoon, Executive Director of the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS) at a workshop held this week at the Movenpick Hotel in Colombo on “Livelihood Insurance from Elephants in Sri Lanka.”

She said conflicts between human and wildlife is becoming a widespread problem not only in Sri Lanka but in many other parts as well due to econom- ic growth and natural habitats of wild life being destroyed by people. As a result animals going in search of food destroy crops and also cause loss of life to those in close communities. The flip side of it is that animals too are being subject to greater risks of injury and death due to conflict.

The human elephant conflict has gained a lot of attention during the past few years and is escalating further. This is a situation that needs to be addressed urgently as elephants have become an endangered species. She said data shows that the elephant population in Sri Lanka has been decimated by 50 per cent during the past 60 to 70 years. There are only 2500-4000- elephants considered to be wild.

Paul Steele, Chief Economist - International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), UK, said the overall objective of the project is to develop and test private commercial insurance schemes to reduce the impact on human wildlife conflict involving men and women and small farmers in Sri Lanka and also in Kenya.

He said about 230 elephants are killed by farmers each year in Sri Lanka which is quite significant. The object of the project in Sri Lanka is to develop cost effective private insurance schemes in a couple of provinces, to verify claims and to pay farmers as early as possible and to ensure that they receive payments on time. He said they are looking at the problem of insurance premiums whether a semi government institute or a private organisation like a NGO or the tourism industry, or any international partners will pay premiums.

Meanwhile the Livelihood Insurance from Elephants ( Live) Project with funding from the Darwin initiative of the UK’s Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs aims to assess over three years the feasibility of improving insurance as a tool for reducing the impacts of human wildlife conflict in Sri Lanka and Kenya in collaboration with the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) UK.

The project is intended to help the government to pilot new insurance schemes to learn from each project and develop an effective national approach. The research will focus on key challenges viz (a) Cost effective verification, (b) Timely and fair payments, and ( C) Financial sustainability. Dr. Athula Senaratne, Research Fellow – IPS and Chandana Sooriyabandara, Director General of the Department of Wildlife Conservation, Sri Lanka also spoke.