The Human Elephant Conflict

The Human Elephant Conflict is a term that defines a growing problem in Asia. Habitat is shrinking daily and humans are encroaching on the territory of elephants. At the same time, many poor farmers haven’t changed their daily lives for hundreds of years but their crops and villages are being threatened. As urbanization takes hold, the elephants have nowhere else to go and end up in fields searching for food.

In villages, elephants are considered pests. Very big and dangerous pests.  They raid crops and devastate and entire year’s harvest.

Like any wild animal that is losing its habitat, elephants are becoming more aggressive and people are losing their lives.

Each year in Sri Lanka 50 people are killed by elephants and in India that has a billion + more people than Sri Lanka,  150 – 200 people are killed by elephants each year.

Because of these statistics Sri Lankans are mobilizing and fighting back.  Elephants are being shot, poisoned and electrocuted.  As many as 100 – 150 elephants are being killed each year and it doesn’t seem as if anyone can come to a solution.  Some statistics have stated that over 200 elephants were killed in Sri Lanka in 2009.

We need to protect this majestic animal .

An Elephant experience in Sri Lanka's most famous elephant orphanage; home to retired, abused or orphaned elephants.

Work at this wonderful Elephant Orphanage which is a sanctuary for rescued, injured or abused elephants. Visitors from all over the world come to see these magnificent animals. Around 80 elephants have found homes at Pinnawala, including some small babies who have been born into the herd. The daily highlight is the walk from the Orphanage down to the river to bathe the elephants. It's amazing to watch an entire herd splashing around and rolling in the river, just a few feet in front of you!

Wild Elephant In Srilanka

Sri Lankan elephants known as Aliya or Etaha (tusker) by local people are the most loved animal by Sri Lankan. They have a fascinating behavior to watch and have a great National value as a tourist attraction. There are many National parks around the country to see elephants.

(The Asian elephant, Elephas maximus, is smaller than the African. It has smaller ears, and typically, only the males have large external tusks.)

Sri Lanka is a small island of 65,000 square miles. It has a population of 20 million people. It is also home to a wild elephant (Elephas maximus) population of approximately 4,500 to 5,000. The man-elephant ratio is 5000:1.  About 5 square km of land is needed to support an elephant in its forest habitat.

             

            This wild population is declining. The increasing human population, with its demand for jungle land for development from the elephants habitat, is causing problems to the wild elephant population. Reducing habitats and the resultant Human-Elephant Conflicts, which records the deaths of both the humans and elephants, is the greatest threat to Sri Lanka’s wild elephants population.

With the reduction of their habitats elephant populations have broken up and some herds have got pocketed in small patches of jungle. With their movement restricted, especially when food and water resources are depleted, elephants wander into new cultivated areas, which were their former habitat, in search of food. Elephants find ready source of food in these cultivated areas, but wild elephants are unwelcome neighbours in agricultural areas.

             

            With their large size and equally large appetites, elephants can easily destroy the entire cultivation of a peasant farmer in a single night. Therefore the farmers look upon the elephant as a dangerous pest and would rarely regret its disappearance from their area. Elephants are incompatible with agriculture unless the damage they cause is compensated the anger and frustrations of the farmers will increase. Thus the conflict between man and elephant has become the most serious conservation problems facing the DWC in Sri Lanka, where a combination of deforestation, agricultural expansion, and human population growth has substantially reduced the habitat that was once available to the elephant.