By Kamanthi Wickramasinghe 
Pics by Pradeep Dilrukshana 

The aggravating human-elephant conflict, decisions on street dogs, proposals to cull monkey populations, distribution of weapons to farmers and statements made by ministers have sparked much outrage and concerns among animal welfare groups. In response, at a recent landmark gathering, Buddhist clergy, animal welfare activists, corporate representatives and citizens made a united appeal to the government to adopt evidence-based, humane and sustainable policies to protect the environment and wildlife in Sri Lanka. 

In his opening remarks, Venerable Pagoda Janithawansha Thero highlighted inefficiencies and shortsighted decisions made by successive governments that had resulted in the prevailing human-elephant conflict (HEC). He said that the time has come for all like-minded individuals to unite in this cause and raise their voices against the ongoing ecocide and killing of wildlife. 
 
During the briefing, he also underscored the fact that back in the day, there were more humans and elephants, even at the time when the then Ceylon was known as the Granary of the East. “We had around 70,000 elephants, and certainly there were more humans as well. Technology wasn’t as advanced as it is now, and all these big temples and religious places were built by humans. But we don’t remember having conflicts like what we see now,” he added.

He said that even adiwasi tribes that engaged in hunting maintained certain principles so as to let go of pregnant animals and animals feeding on grass or drinking water. “But today elephants are being shot at while they have been feeding on fodder. People seem to have become more ignorant and cruel,” he opined.

Speaking further, Ven. Janithawansha Thero said that the National Action Plan on Human Elephant Conflict Mitigation, drafted by experts such as Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando and Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya proposes practical solutions to mitigate the existing conflict. He said that electric fencing built and maintained by local communities has been proven globally to reduce confrontations. “Around 44% of the country’s land area is now shared by humans and elephants, and this represents 70% of the current elephant range. But efforts to confine elephants to protected zones, which cover only 30% of their habitat, have failed, further aggravating the conflict,” he said while adding that between 2015-2024, nearly 600 elephants were killed, mostly due to HEC and that scientifically grounded solutions need to be implemented soon to mitigate the conflict. 

In his comments regarding the conflict between humans and monkey populations, systems ecologist and Chairman of Earth Restoration Dr. Ranil Senanayake said that instead of culling, innovative methods to control monkey populations grounded in Sri Lanka’s Buddhist values of ahimsa (non-violence) exist. He advocated for the use of feeding stations with food laced with high-dose progesterone, a scientifically proven method to curb reproduction in primates, first tested on Rhesus monkeys decades ago. 

Speaking at the media briefing, environmentalist Dr. Rukshan Jayawardene said that HEC is the only real wildlife conflict in the country. He said that some people misunderstand that other animals are also in conflict with humans. “In the case of elephants, there are casualties every week, month and year, and there’s an annual toll. But if it’s one-sided and the only casualties are monkeys or some other animal, then it’s not a conflict but a slaughter or killing. Elephants are the only species on this island that are able to fight back against human expansion, habitat loss, habitat degradation, cruelty and so on. If someone shoots an elephant and if it doesn’t die immediately, it will choose to charge and kill that man. But this conflict has increased because people have intruded into their lands and denied them areas to live in,” he said while adding that there’s a pattern being followed in the way elephants are being shot, there are targeted poaching attempts for ivory and that Sri Lanka now has only a couple of hundreds of tuskers living in the wilds. 

Shedding light on ad hoc decisions maintained by the government conservationist and convener of Rainforest Protecters, Sri Lanka, Jayantha Wijesingha stressed the repercussions of elephant deaths. “There are solar farms being proposed at the Managed Elephant Reserve, which has been gazetted in Hambantota. We don’t know how many acres of land would be destroyed by these projects. On the other hand, elephant corridors such as Bogahapelessa, Dahaiyagala, Kahalla-Pallekele have been cleared for commercial projects. Around seven iconic tuskers in Kala Wewa have died, and only 3% of elephants remain in the wild. So what would happen when our gene pool gets destroyed?” he questioned. 

Wijesingha further said that legal action could be filed against illegal electric fences, and illegal settlers in national parks could be evicted following legal processes if there’s a political will. “As mentioned by the Environment Minister, there is a conspiracy on the killing of elephants because when elephants are eliminated, they can use the land for other purposes,” he said while adding that the government has failed to implement several practical solutions which environmental experts have already proposed to them. 

The activists also proposed that the government introduce a catch-sterilise-vaccinate-return policy to minimise the growing problem of street dogs, citing global success stories from Singapore, Bhutan and India.