HEC : Time is ticking as Sri Lanka tests practical solutions

Sri Lanka lost a total of nine elephants during the first two months of 2025 as a result of elephant-train collisions. These statistics were issued to this paper by the Department of Wildlife Conservation. But records indicate that over 60 elephants succumbed to injuries caused by electrocution, hakka patas and gunshots. In February this year, seven elephants succumbed to injuries as a result of a collision with the Colombo-Batticaloa train ‘Meenagaya’. On March 3 another elephant succumbed to injuries along the same train route in Manampitiya.

 
In response to the escalating number of elephant-train collisions occurring frequently along the Colombo-Batticaloa route, the Railways Department took steps to revise train schedules of three trains namely, ‘Udaya Devi’, ‘Pulathisi’ and ‘Meenagaya’ in addition to trains 7083 and 7084 travelling along the Trincomalee-Colombo route. The new timetables would come into effect from March 7, 2025. While many individuals from the wildlife and conservation fraternity have questioned the practicality of this step, officials from respective departments maintain that some intervention or attempt to minimize elephant deaths is better than taking no action at all. 

Another intervention taken by the government to mitigate elephant-train collisions is to fill the gaps between railway tracks so that it allows elephants to cross quickly when a train approaches. A pilot project was conducted between Gal Oya Junction and Hingurakgoda areas. 

Earlier this year, the government carried out several unplanned elephant drives in the North Central Province, an area with an aggravating human-elephant conflict (HEC) due to unplanned development, habitat encroachment and other anthropogenic factors. Due to the ad hoc nature of these elephant drives many of them had been unsuccessful. Instead of going into the designated national park such as Wilpattu for instance, the elephants had in turn scattered within the area, causing damage to cultivations. According to officials operating from the ground, an elephant drive requires months of planning. Conservationists opine that even though the main objective of the DWC had been to confine elephants to areas coming under its purview, it had proven to be a rather unsuccessful effort. 

Another important observation made by conservationists is the fact that during such elephant drives it is usually the female elephants and their calves that are removed from their habitats. But it is a known fact that lone male elephants contribute to the HEC. Lone male elephants usually leave their original habitats during an elephant drive and return once the mission is over. Following a drive, the remaining elephants usually raid human settlements, vegetable plots and cause damage to property. 

Farmers in rural areas who have been battered by the aggravating HEC would go to any length to ensure that elephants wouldn’t damage their crops. In areas such as Palugaswewa, farmers have gone to the extent of installing iron rods and nails to their doors and windows to avoid elephants damaging their paddy stocks which are usually kept inside houses. For them, elephants are the ultimate pest. In Hambantota, a child and grandmother had a near escape when an elephant damaged their house during the thick of the night. According to Environment Minister Dr. Dhammika Patabendi, a total of 734 people have died between 2020 and 2024 as a result of HEC. He assured in Parliament that sufficient funds would be allocated to resolve HEC. 

Successive governments have failed in their attempts to mitigate the HEC. Today the issue has blown out of proportion to a point where a practical solution, if any, would take another couple of years to be proven successful. By the time a practical solution gets patented, approved and passed by government authorities, many more elephants may perhaps perish to the soil. At this rate, one can only have a faint hope that a permanent solution to save the lives of elephants and humans vulnerable to HEC would see light of day as soon as possible, before Sri Lanka is left with its last elephant!

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