All 05 elephant corridors in Anuradhapura District encroached by humans

It was revealed that the main reason for aggravating the human-elephant conflict in Anuradhapura District was encroachment of the 05 main elephant corridors located in that area by various people.

Minister of Agriculture, Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation, Mahinda Amaraweera held a discussion with the wildlife officials in Anuradhapura District last week. Farmer representatives, who attended that discussion, pointed out that their cultivations were being destroyed by wild elephants and proper income cannot be obtained from crop lands due to damages caused by animals.

Currently, there are 16 major elephant corridors in Sri Lanka and wild elephants have been deprived of all these elephant corridors due to human activities. The Minister said that all area residents would be removed in the coming year from 03 elephant corridors in which human-elephant conflict has been aggravated and re-establish those corridors enabling the wild elephants to migrate freely.

Similarly, plans are underway to release the remaining 13 elephant passes by the year 2024 and to provide compensation and any other suitable lands to the encroachers in those areas for settlement. The Minister said that human-elephant conflict could be reduced by 50% by releasing all 16 elephant passes including 05 elephant corridors in Anuradhapura District.

Wild elephants are unable to migrate across the elephant corridors freely owing to various constructions such as cultivations, business places, buildings and small factories etc. carried out by blocking all these elephant passes and as a result, elephants tend to attack humans and destroy properties, the Minister added.