TIME TO RETHINK MITIGATION APPROACH REGARDING HUMAN-ELEPHANT CONFLICT

Sri Lanka’s human-elephant conflict (HEC) has reached a breaking point. In 2023, Sri Lanka became the deadliest country for Asian elephants, with 488 killed a 115% increase since 2010.

- By Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya and Dr. Malathy Knight

HEC-related human deaths also increased by 127% in this period. From January to October this year there were 366 elephant deaths and 131 human fatalities.

Sri Lanka’s HEC policy, largely unchanged for more than 65 years, has exacerbated the issue. The key flaw is the focus on confining elephants to “inside” Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) Protected Areas (PAs). This approach does not address the central problem of insufficient carrying capacity within PAs and managing “outside” elephants that continue to raid crops and break into houses for grain.

The tragedy of this continued policy myopia is that there is an official plan based on scientific research that provides a better solution. In 2020, a Presidential Committee prepared a National Action Plan for the Mitigation of HEC (NAP) with wide stakeholder participation. NAP concluded that any strategy must include the management of elephants inside and outside DWC PAs. Successive governments have largely ignored these recommendations except for in 2023/2024. Yet, the 2026 Budget doubles down on this failure, allocating substantial amounts of funding to strategies proven to be futile.

It is time to rethink the current approach. Effective HEC mitigation is crucial for rural livelihoods. Elephants are a keystone species, vital for ecosystems and biodiversity and an important source of revenue through ecotourism. This article argues that NAP’s research-based and pilot-tested solutions must be implemented now.

Science-based solutions