19 October 2019 | New Scientist | 37Sri Lanka has few underpasses or overpasses
but there is a straightforward fix. Train drivers
could simply slow down in the areas where
elephants tend to get hit.
What I saw in Galewewa shows that people
can peacefully coexist with elephants, so long
as they have the right attitude and some
semblance of support. Notionally at least,
the Sri Lankan government is on board. As
early as 2007, it created a national elephant
conservation plan that largely reflected the
findings of Fernando, Pilapitiya and other
elephant researchers, including provisions
for implementing seasonal agricultural
fencing and educational programmes.
But the plan was implemented ad hoc and
has failed to live up to its potential as a result,
says Pilapitiya, who resigned from his job
heading Sri Lanka’s wildlife department
in 2015 because of “systemic political
interference”. G. C. Sooriyabandara, the
current director-general of the Department
of Wildlife Conservation, didn’t respond to
repeated interview requests.
Still, there are signs of progress. In a
first for Sri Lanka, the country’s Southern
Development Board, following advice from
Pilapitiya and Fernando, agreed to use radio
tracking collars to study the movements of
several herds of elephants so it could select a
site for a major industrial project that would
minimise impact on the animals. “It’s the
right thing to do, as far as I’m concerned,”
says a high-level official at the board, who
asked not to be named because he didn’t
have permission to speak to the media.
As more and more villages sign up for
his fencing programme, Fernando and his
colleagues believe the country as a whole will
eventually follow. “This is not something that
can be done in a day or a year or even 10 years,”
says Fernando. “It might take 25 years. But
we’re hopeful that common sense will prevail.”
It is already too late for Brigadier. But if
Fernando is right, Asian elephants can look
forward to a brighter future, and not only in
Sri Lanka. The country’s human population
density isn’t far behind that of India and
Bangladesh, but it has almost 10 times the
number of elephants. This makes it a test case
for human-elephant coexistence, says de Silva.
“If we can get it to work in Sri Lanka, we can get
it to work anywhere.” ❚system to others in Sri Lanka,” says
J. M. Muthubanda, president of the Fence
Maintenance Society in Manakkuliya Gama,
a village near Galewewa. “If we didn’t have this
fence, many people would have been killed
and we would have had to abandon the land.
This was the best decision we ever made.”
Fencing can only ever be one part of the
solution. Just as important is persuading
people to change the way they think about
living alongside elephants – and to adapt their
behaviour. People need to take responsibility
for protecting themselves and the elephants
they share the land with, says Fernando.
Take drinking, for example. Around 70 per
cent of men who are killed by elephants are
intoxicated when the incident happens.
Simply staying inside after a night of drinking
would greatly reduce those deaths, says
Sumith Pilapitiya, an independent elephant
researcher and former director general of
wildlife conservation in Sri Lanka. “If you’re
out drunk on a bike at night and you ride into
an elephant, what do you expect the elephant
to do at that point?” says Pilapitiya. “As human
beings, we should be taking much more
responsibility for our lives.”
Trains are another problem. Around
15 elephants are killed each year on the tracks.Rachel Nuwer is author of Poached:
Inside the dark world of wildlife
trafficking. Reporting for this story
was supported by the Pulitzer Centerthe time in the world” to figure out how to get
past the obstacles, says Fernando. Those that
encounter a fence surrounding a village or
crop field are unlikely to invest the time and
energy required to break in because there will
usually be people around, and elephants are
afraid of them.Do fence me in
Eventually, after several years of deliberation,
the village elders agreed to try the method.
Fernando’s organisation paid for 90 per cent
of the installation costs but villagers paid the
rest, as well as shouldering the burden of
maintaining the fences throughout the
growing season. After harvesting, they take
down the fences, allowing elephants to
forage on the crop remains.
The results have been encouraging.
After six years with the fences, no people or
elephants have been killed, nocturnal raids
are practically non-existent and crop yields
and earnings have significantly increased.
Galewewa’s success has prompted around
25 more villages to join the programme, and
Sri Lanka’s wildlife department has now
established another 30 village fences.
“I would 100 per cent recommend thisElectric fences that
surround villages,
rather than
elephants, seem
to reduce conflictJAMES MORGAN/PANOS, WWW.CCRSL.ORG