Human Elephant Conflicts

The Sri Lanka elephant (Elephas maximus maximus) has shared a special cultural bond with people of Sri Lanka over 25 Centuries. Elephants are featured prominently in Sri Lanka history, Culture, religious faiths and folklore Symbolizing qualities like physical strength, intelligence, dexterity, loyalty and responsibility. IUCN Red List Rank is endangered.

Based on remote sensing studies, elephant range I Sri Lana Constitutes approximately 2% of the current global range. However, estimates of elephant numbers by leading international experts suggest that over 10% of the total Asian Elephant population is found in Sri Lanka.

Ecologically, Asian elephants are an ‘edge species’, which means that the best habitat for them is at the boundary between the forest and open habitats. Tall, closed canopy forests- such as mature tropical rainforests and evergreen forests – are not ideal habitats for elephants. Most of the growth in such forests happens up in the canopy which is beyond the reach of elephants – the undergrowth is sparse due to the low light falling inside.

The number of wild elephant that can be supported by a given extent of land varies on the type of its vegetation. A large extent of global Asian elephant habitat in countries such as Myanmar, Laos and Malaysia is covered in closed canopy rain forests. Examples in Sri Lankan dry evergreen forest in the National Parks of Wilpattu, Wasgamouwa and Yala (Block 5). In closed canopy forests both in Sri Lanka and in other countries, a single elephant needs around 5 to 10 square Kilometers or 1200 to 2400 acres of area. However, if Such Forests are disturbed and converted to a mosaic of regenerating forests and grassland Savanna patches, the pioneer species of shrubs and grasses provide abundant fodder for elephants. In such regenerating forests grassland habitats, a single elephant on average needs only one third to one fifth of a square kilometer, or around 50 to 80 acres.

It is believed that elephants came to Sri Lanka over 3 million years ago, through a land bridge connection that existed at the time with India. In comparison, the first humans arrived in the island only about 50000 years ago. Because of the tropical climatic conditions in Sri Lanka, the entire island would have been covered in mature, closed canopy natural forests for millions of years. In such conditions, elephants would have been found at low densities in both wet zone rain forests and dry zone evergreen forests. Sri Lanka has few natural lakes, and elephants would have had to depend on rivers and streams for water. The seasonality of dry zone rivers would have had a further negative impact on elephant numbers in the dry zone.

This situation changed completely after the humans arrived and started their settlement, and especially with the advent of irrigated agriculture. For thousands of years, people have been converting mature closed canopy forests in the dry Zone into agricultural fields. They have been damming rivers, tributaries and streams to make numerous reservoirs or tanks. While shifting agriculture practiced for elephants, irrigated agriculture was a permanent form of land use which excluded elephants.

Around 13^th Century AD, the civilization in the dry Zone Gradually declined, and the centre of civilization slowly shifted to the wet zone. From the 16^th century, the country came under colonial rule, during which periods the wet Zone became densely populated. Large scale land use changes took place due to the growing of cash crops, while the targeted killing of elephants practically eliminated tem from the wet zone. Today, the last wet zone elephants are found in the remnant forests of the Peak Wilderness.

Meanwhile, the regenerating secondary forests in the largely abandoned dry zone, along with the thousands of tanks built during the ancient hydraulic civilization, provided an ideal elephant habitat. The low intensity shifting agriculture practiced in the dry Zone also maintained the habitat in optimal condition for elephants.

After political independence in 1948, the land use patterns changed once again. With rapid human population growth, successive governments turned to redeveloping the dry zone for agriculture. Large scale irrigation projects that dammed major rivers and diverted water to newly constructed reservoirs, brought extensive areas of the dry zone once again under irrigation agriculture. These involved resettling people from the crowded wet zone in the newly opened up areas of the dry Zone.

Conflict between humans and elephant is not a new phenomenon; elephant have been raiding crops since time immemorial. However, the reverence people had for elephants in Sri Lanka historically ensured its peaceful co-existence and made them tolerant of the occasional intrusion. In recent times however, human settlements have been encroaching further and further into elephant habitat, and the incidence of crop-raiding has increases phenomenally, leading to the destruction of crops, human homes and lives. Most of the large scale clearings of jungle for agriculture have not given due consideration to the ecological needs of the elephant and other wildlife. As people have suffered escalating losses to elephant, their tolerance has given way to anger and frustration. Every year hundreds of acres of agricultural crops, considerable number of houses and other property are destroyed by elephant looking for food.

On average every year about 100 – 150 elephants die in Sri Lanka due to intense human-elephant conflict. Conflict is widespread through the elephant habitat. The reason for conflict too varies from region to region. It is unlikely that just one solution will help resolve human elephant conflict. New ideas should tired out as pilot projects and refine to suit legal issues. It is important to involve the local people from the very beginning. Consideration should be given to their plight as well as to the elephant’s if these projects are too succeeded. Public participation is crucial not only to resolve human elephant conflict but also to ensure the long term survival of the Sri Lankan elephant. A farmer who can reap the benefits of his labor would be more benevolent towards the elephant than one whose life, family, property and crops are under constant threat from it.

Management Strategies

Both within and outside National Parks authorities are required to take decisions in the light of presently inadequate knowledge or information. This continues to be so especially in the case of elephants, their habitats, and the human population. This continues to be so especially in the case of elephants, their habitats, and the human populations around them, and the problems that manifest themselves as a result of these interactions.

The approach of “Adaptive Management” where actions are designed to provide information on the state and function of the ecosystem under management, has been advocated, but rarely practiced by essentially conservative wildlife managers. A more confident approach to management and research coupled with improved models and genuine interest in finding how systems work would appear to be the way forward. This could best be achieved by avoiding such concept as fixed equilibrium, embodied by the obsolete term “carrying capacity” and giving greater scope to ecological processes within at least some parts of the elephant range.

Variety in management strategies would generate spatial and temporal heterogeneity, allowing greater species diversity and providing the possibility of experimental treatment blocks. Research on other components of elephant habitat systems Such as the habitat requirements and vulnerabilities of other animals and plant species and on the influence of fire and other episodic disturbance factors should be undertaken. Whatever the approach adopted, management should have clear goals and objectives which do not conflict. Measurable objectives, Such as limits of acceptable change broad or narrow should be identified so that research can have a target and management can be informed on the progress or otherwise towards its goals. Many small elephant populations, habitats, plant and animal communities still exist outside protected areas and they also deserve attention, in the context of fast diminishing forest cover and species including elephants, following the rapidly increasing human population in the island. Specific problems that need attention include impact of elephants upon the habitats are their long term viability, the loss of habitats for its fragmentation due to human nativities incidence of crop damage by elephants and economics loss involved , and the growing conflict between elephants, people and other forms of land use, such as agricultural and agro forestry.

Conflict between people and elephants has now developed to huge proportions; there is an urgent need either to reduce the level of conflict or to increase the levels of human tolerance, or both. Protection of new habitats and linking them with the larger National Parks by establishing jungle corridors, creation of buffer zones or multiple land use areas in the periphery of National Parks, where elephants now free range , Payment of reasonable compensation for rope damage and man slaughter by elephants, providing employment and engaging local communities for park development works, creation of an auxiliary game guard system involving local communities to help farmers to scare away persistently crop raiding elephants to patrol and gather information. In multiple lands use areas of buffer zones are some of the ways and means of reducing the existing level of conflict and increasing the levels of human tolerance. Use of power fences by state and private sector agencies to keep away elephants from raiding their large plantations and by cultivation societies of farmers to protect large extent cultivated under tank irrigation too should be advocated and actively promoted by the DWLC. The use of power fences to control elephant egress is being restored to in many countries both in Asia and Africa with different measures of success. Given the present advancement of technology, well applied and maintained power fences can act as a powerful deterrent to elephant entry and trespass. Cost effectiveness of power fences is an aspect that is often neglected in many countries. Cost benefits analysis of power fences are important prerequisite for their promotion among development agencies and farmers, as an effective and acceptable elephant management tool.