Moves to clear five blocked elephant corridors in Anuradhapura (Sri Lanka)
Moves to clear five blocked elephant corridors in Anuradhapura (Sri Lanka)
The Daily News, Sri Lanka
December 7, 2022
See link
https://www.dailynews.lk/2022/12/07/local/292630/moves-clear-five-blocked-elephant-corridors-anuradhapura
for photo.
Wildlife Department officers revealed all the five elephant corridors in
Anuradhapura district have been taken over by the villagers there.
It was revealed that the main reason for the rise in human-elephant
conflict in Anuradhapura district is that all five major elephant corridors
in the district have been occupied by area persons.
The Agriculture, Wildlife and Forest Conservation Minister Mahinda
Amaraweera held a discussion with Wildlife officials in the Anuradhapura
district last week.
Farmer representatives who participated in the discussion pointed out that
their crops are destroyed by wild elephants and that due to damage by
animals, they do not get proper harvest from the cultivated land.
There are currently 16 major elephant corridors in Sri Lanka, all of which
have been lost to wild elephants due to human activities.
Therefore, the minister said that three elephant corridors where the
human-elephant conflict is currently raging will be removed next year and
all the residents there will be re-settled to make it easier for the wild
elephants to travel.
Also, by 2024, it is planned to free all the remaining 13 elephant
corridors and provide compensation and other suitable alternative lands to
the people occupying them.
The Minister also mentioned that by freeing all 16 elephant corridors
including five elephant corridors in the Anuradhapura district, it will be
possible to reduce human conflicts with wild elephants by 50%, the Minister
said.
The Minister mentioned that the elephants are not able to move freely
through the elephant corridors because of the various constructions such as
plantations, business places, building constructions and small factories
covering all these elephant corridors, and in such cases they attack and
destroy people and property.