Human-elephant conflict, the worst animal cruelty

Governments failed to bring effective solutions to human-elephant conflict because they did not try to treat the root cause

Sri Lanka records the highest number of elephant deaths in the world. The year 2023 marked one of the worst in recent memory, with 488 elephants killed and 182 human deaths reported due to the conflict. By mid-2024, another 388 elephants had already perished (Dr. Vipula Wanigasekera). According to Wildlife Director General Ranjan Marasinghe, a total of 245 elephants had died this year due to various causes. Among them, 38 were electrocuted, while 13 were fatally struck by trains. The annual toll may exceed 500 lives of elephants by year-end. 

Despite shocking revelations by the media of the alarming figures of elephant deaths and animal cruelty no Government had taken serious steps to address the human-elephant conflict. Between 2015 and 2024, over 3,484 elephants have died due to this conflict, along with 1,195 human lives lost (VOA News, 2024).

Voters in the last General election have given the biggest ever mandate to the National People’s Power (NPP) led by President Anura Kumara Disanayake to address the critical national issues. The human-elephant conflict must be among them.

Not a story about numbers

Here are some sensitive stories about human cruelty from the recent past.

On 29 May 2020, Sri Lanka lost an extremely rare Black Panther, one of the most beautiful animals in the world, after being caught in a human trap. Had the authorities including President Gotabaya Rajapaksa taken necessary precautions to protect him, the magnificent beast would have been a pride and glamour of our mother nature. 

The tragic death of the black leopard was a wake-up call to our authorities on the tragedy of Sri Lankan wildlife. Sadly, even after the incident many beautiful leopards, elephants including baby elephants became victims of the human traps, snares and poisoning. In September 2019 seven elephants found dead of suspected poisoning. Every year, nearly 400 elephants get killed by gunshot wounds or trapped guns or Jaw Exploders notoriously known as ‘Hakka Patas’. On the other hand, every year around 100 people from the farming villages get killed by elephants’ attacks and wild elephants destroy their livelihood as the villagers and the Government projects increasingly destroy their natural habitats. This is not a story about numbers but the story about how they die and why they die.

I remember those stories from my childhood specially when some villagers by the jungles poisoned the carcases of the leopard’s prey aiming to get beautiful skins of the leopards without knowing that skins become unusable and fur could not be retained because of poisoning. The ignorant villagers had killed hundreds of leopards in this horrific way, and they died in extreme pain.

In a horrific incident in Murungan, in the north in Sri Lanka, some villagers had hidden explosives inside a pumpkin (Hakka Patas) and left it for a wild elephant to consume it. A mother elephant searching for food along with her calf had tried to eat it. The pumpkin suddenly exploded in her mouth injuring her severely. Since then, she could not eat anything and died of starvation. Wildlife officials in Madhu area found a malnourished baby elephant beside the carcass of its dead mother, which was lying by the side of the road in the village of Kattankudy Kulam in Murungan. The calf had remained by her side nearly two weeks, too young to forage for food on its own, and was extremely malnourished, with its bones sticking out through its skin.

Tragedy of wildlife in Sri Lanka

According to the reports: Hakka Patas (Jaw Exploders) concealed in baits for bushmeat hunting have overtaken gunshot injuries as the primary cause of elephant deaths in Sri Lanka in recent years. Jaw exploders are a combination of gunpowder and fragments of metal or rock packed tightly together. When bitten they explode in the animal’s mouth.

• The explosives cause horrific injuries, shattering the jaw and destroying soft tissue inside the mouth, leading to a slow and painful death from infection.
• One in five recorded elephant deaths in year 2019 were due to these devices, with most of the victims being juvenile elephants under the age of 10. They died in extreme pain and of starvation as they could not eat anything with the blasted mouths.

Due to the human-elephant conflict, tragic deaths of wild elephants and the poor farmers are a constant reminder of the tragedy of the wildlife in Sri Lanka. 

Millions of tourists every year come to Sri Lanka to see elephants and wildlife. According to the credible researchers remaining forest cover in Sri Lanka is less than 16% and every year more than 66,000 acres of forests, including virgin forests, are destroyed. With the magnitude of destruction of forests and killing of wild elephants and other beautiful animals, how could the Government expect to thrive in the tourism industry and agriculture? I have pointed out on numerous occasions, with the magnitude of destruction of forests, if the Government did not take immediate action Sri Lanka could be a desert well before the end of the 21st Century. 

Amazingly simple example from London

Here is an amazingly simple example from London to save green space for future generations. When I moved to London, I was surprised when I saw the huge parks, heaths (undeveloped lands, almost like jungles) and the green spaces, all over. It is known as a green city with over eight million trees, the world’s largest urban forest. 

London is a densely populated area with 9.84 million residents in 2025, and there is a massive demand for houses or living spaces, yet no British government allows the people to compromise the green space (which is 47% in total) to meet the demand for housing. Lands do not grow! To meet the need for housing for the ever-increasing population, London as well as other countries in Europe build more and more apartment buildings, skyscrapers and tower buildings even at village levels to save the lands for future generation. To prevent overcrowding some other big cities have been built in remote areas as an alternative to living in London like Milton Keynes. Why can’t the Sri Lankan Government learn from that experience to protect the catchment area of the lakes and save the remaining green spaces for our future generations and the wild animals? 

Animal cruelty was one of the horrific practices among bullock cart drivers (bullockies), especially in the North and East in which testicles of young bulls are crushed by a wooden tool (apparently the tradition came from India) to prevent ejaculation believing young bulls lose their strength to pull out bull carts when they have sexual intercourse. This causes unimaginable pain on bulls, and they cannot walk for nearly two months. But the truth is the opposite, bulls are stronger when they have sex with cows. They become weaker when their testicles were crushed or removed. So, the cruel practice must be banned. 

I hear that the tusker of the Temple of Tooth Relic is prevented from mating with female elephants. If this is true, it is a worst example of animal cruelty. I have watched recently published very sensitive videos about the suffering of the badly wounded elephants after they were being caught by human traps.

Governments failed to bring effective solutions

It is evident all efforts of the current and previous Governments failed to bring effective solutions to human-elephant conflict because they did not try to treat the root cause. The root cause is the shrinking wildlife habitats with human activities including government development projects and settlement schemes such as ‘Gam Udava’. There are straight forward solutions.

• President Anura Kumara Disanayake should set up a taskforce and consult experts in the field, representatives of the villagers and the interested parties who have passion and vision about the solutions.
• With immediate effect, the President should ban any form of further destruction of jungles and forests. 
• Jungles grown freely during the 30-year-long civil war must be protected from the villagers and the farmers.
• The farmers and the villagers, by the habitats of wild animals including elephants, should be resettled where they are safe and able to make a living. 
• From now on solutions to homelessness or housing for the ever-increasing population should be building Chinese and European style apartment buildings even at village level to save the lands and forests for future generations. Any project like ‘Gam Udava’ must not be the solution.
• Any people who have had encroached the catchment areas of the lakes and reservoirs such as Kala Veva should be removed and resettled for the benefit of the agriculture, wildlife and the future generations. 
• Tougher laws should be introduced to punish those who destroy nature and wildlife.

(The writer resides in London.)