2019-10-19_New_Scientist

34 | New Scientist | 19 October 2019

The

elephant

in the

garden

Rampant deforestation is

forcing Asian elephants into

conflict with humans.

Rachel Nuwer went to

Sri Lanka to see if we can

live in peace with them

Features

L

IKE many young bull elephants,

Brigadier had a strategy. Spending his

days in a small patch of forest in north-

west Sri Lanka, he would emerge under cover

of darkness to feast on crops. One evening, he

bundled into an army brigadier’s property,

earning him his name and sealing his fate.

Government officials captured Brigadier

and trucked him to Maduru Oya National

Park. But he immediately took off, probably

intending to find his way home, got lost and

wound up 120 kilometres north at Sampur

beach. Incredibly, a navy boat discovered

him swimming 5 kilometres offshore and

towed him to safety.

After his big adventure, Brigadier settled

down again, returning to his nocturnal crop-

raiding routine. Six months later, he was

found dead at the bottom of a well.

Apart from the swimming bit, stories

like this are common in Sri Lanka, where

habitat loss is forcing elephants into an

increasingly bloody conflict with humans.

When I visited the country to report on

efforts to stem the bloodshed, I found that

the government’s favoured solution of

moving problem elephants into fenced-off

national parks isn’t working. Some experts

believe it will even backfire, pushing the

species to the brink in the country.

The only way to secure the future of

Sri Lanka’s elephants, they argue, is to find

ways to peacefully coexist with them. That

is no mean feat. And yet, as I saw for myself

in several villages, there is a simple solution.

The question is, will it be implemented across

the island? And will people accept that the

elephants must live among us or not at all?

Asian elephants are under pressure. Their

numbers have declined by an estimated 50 per

cent in the last 75 years, leaving just 40,000 to

50,000 in the wild. Although they aren’t

poached anywhere near as much as their

African cousins, their forest homes are being

rapidly fragmented. Nowhere is the problem

more acute than in Sri Lanka. It accounts for

just 2 per cent of their total habitat, yet is home

to over 5000 Asian elephants – more than

10 per cent of the remaining global population.

That so many elephants remain here is a

testament to the species’ cultural importance

in the country. The majority of Sri Lankans are

Buddhist and elephants feature prominently

in a number of stories about the Buddha’s