Human-elephant conflict under COPA watch

• Sri Lanka had become a country with the highest number of elephant deaths in the world and the second highest number of reported human deaths in the world, due to the human-elephant conflict

By Yohan Perera   

The Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) will look into the Special Audit Report on the Human-Elephant Conflict in Sri Lanka when it meets on February 23, the Parliament media unit said yesterday.   

The COPA meeting which was held on December 9, 2020, disclosed that Sri Lanka had become a country with the highest number of elephant deaths in the world due to the human-elephant conflict. It was also revealed that Sri Lanka has the second highest number of reported human deaths in the world as a result of the ongoing human-elephant conflict.  

These facts were presented by Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando, a scholar with many years of research experience regarding the human-elephant conflict. 

 
Although the average number of elephant deaths in Sri Lanka due to the ongoing human-elephant conflict is 272 per year, it was mentioned at the COPA meeting, that 407 elephants have died during the past year. It was also pointed out that though the average number of human deaths due to the human-elephant conflict is 85 per year, in the year 2019 a number of 122 human lives have been lost.  

Accordingly, the recommendations put forward in Sri Lanka pertaining to minimising the human-elephant conflict will be considered at the COPA next week.  

The COPA will also take up the Performance of the Government Schools in which the number of students relatively minimised, on February 24th and the performance of the Sri Lanka Department of Customs will be up on February 25. 

• The recommendations put forward in Sri Lanka pertaining to minimising  the human-elephant conflict will be considered at the COPA next week