Sri Lanka vowed Thursday to urgently tackle costly clashes between villagers and wild elephants after reporting the deaths of nearly 1,200 people and more than 3,500 animals in a decade.
Environment minister Dammika Patabendi told parliament that they will build more electrified fences and deploy additional staff to help reduce elephant raids on villages near wildlife sanctuaries.
"We are allocating more money to reduce the human-elephant conflict, and are hopeful that within a short period of time we will be able to mitigate the situation," Patabendi said.
Between 2015 and 2024, 1,195 people and 3,484 wild elephants were killed, he said.
In January this year, three more people and 43 elephants were killed.
Opposition legislator Nalin Bandara said the toll was "shocking" and urged authorities to protect people, while also ensuring that the wild animals were not harmed.
He noted that disposing of the carcasses of wild elephants had cost the state about $11.6 million over a decade, while compensation to victims of elephant attacks was about $4 million over the same period.
Killing or harming elephants is a criminal offense in Sri Lanka, which has an estimated 7,000 wild elephants, which are considered a national treasure, partly due to their significance in Buddhist culture.
However, the massacre continues as desperate farmers struggle with elephants raiding their crops and destroying livelihoods.
Many elephants have been electrocuted, shot and poisoned. Sometimes fruits packed with explosives are used to injure the animals, often ending in painful deaths.
Elephants are also killed by trains running through their habitats.
Seven elephants, including four calves, were killed when they were run over by an express train in the island's eastern Habarana region a week ago. It was the worst such accident recorded in the country.
Asian elephants are recognized as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
An estimated 26,000 of them live in the wild, mostly in India, surviving for an average of 60-70 years outside captivity.
