Map 1: Planned Developments in the Project Area

Map 2: SPOT Imagery of Project Area

Human Elephant Conflicts

The biggest threat to elephants in Sri Lanka today is habitat loss and human elephant conflict (HEC).  HEC is one of the most pressing conservation problems in wildlife management in Sri Lanka (Corea 2001 & 2006) and is affecting the survival of many species including humans.  As their existing habitats are converted to agricultural land the elephants find themselves competing for resources with people, which leads to increasingly frequent conflict.  As a result, according to the Department of Wildlife Conservation within the period 1997 – 2006 alone 1,413 elephants and 568 people had died in rural Sri Lanka.  The main reason for the significant rates of elephant deaths is that elephants are simply killed whenever they interfere with agriculture.  The extent of crop and property damage caused to farmers by elephants is Rs.1,121.42 million (~US$10 million) per annum (Bandara & Tisdell, 2004), a substantial cost to bear for a population where nearly seventy  percent of people live in poverty and the GNP is less than $1500 per year.  Even instances of government initiated settlement programs causing extensive ecological disaster, and HEC are not uncommon (Hedges et al. 2005, Jayewardene 1994, Alexis 1984, Santiapillai et al. 1984, Ishwaran & Punchi Banda 1982).  In most of these situations people have been settled in areas crucial for the elephant’s survival.  Currently HEC is solely perceived to be a wildlife management or a wildlife conservation problem ― where as in reality it is a socio-economic problem.  HEC is mainly driven by socio-economic factors, e.g. population growth, economic development and human settlement programs therefore its resolution must also be approached from a socio-economic perspective.    The three main contributing factors for the current human elephant conflicts are human population growth, diminishing land resources and ill conceived and badly planned land-use development programs.  While the first two factors are immutable, the third factor offers the most hope for conserving the elephant in the future.  By approaching land use and land management issues with novel and innovative ideas based on landscape conservation concepts it is possible to make room for elephants as well as find a win-win situation for both wildlife and people.   Finding solutions to conserve the elephant is of the highest priority since the elephant is an important cultural, religious and political icon of the country. 

Background

Since the late 1950s the development of the Mahaweli River has been the centerpiece of Sri Lanka’s national development strategy, and during the implementation of the project from the late 1970s onwards, the Accelerated Mahaweli Development Program (AMDP) implemented and managed by the Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka (MASL) was one of the largest river basin development schemes under construction in the world (World Bank 2004).  According to the MASL the total Mahaweli Project Area covers 39 percent of the whole island, 55 percent of the Dry Zone, and encompasses 60 percent of the irrigable land area of Sri Lanka (Map 3).  The AMDP was aimed at providing employment in construction, land for the landless, food, and hydro power and received major funding from the World Bank, Japan Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund, United States Agency for International Development, United Kingdom, Kuwait Fund, and other international donors.  Of the total extent of land that is cultivated under the Mahaweli Authority nearly 90% of the area is cultivated with rice during the wet season, contributing 25% to the national rice production efforts (Amarasinghe & Liyanage 2001).  However the AMDP has not achieved the envisioned success.  The income of farmers resettled under the program has increased at a rate of less than one-third of what was expected and the negative environmental impacts of the program have been considerable .  Few mitigation measures had been taken to offset the program’s requirements for vast areas of land and forest to be cleared with the result that the area under forest has now been reduced to about 20% of the total land area of the island.  Associated with this there has been intense use of the remaining forest by farmers. The consequent degradation of the remaining forest has had serious impact on climate and led to loss of biodiversity, soil erosion, landslides and flash flooding in the highlands.  One of the indirect effects of these negative environmental outcomes has been that resources that would otherwise have been available for further agricultural development have had to be directed to relief and rehabilitation projects for the resettled population.  Another significant consequence has been a major increase in human-elephant conflicts (HEC).

The master plan, which was formulated by the government in 1964-68, envisaged the irrigation of 260,000 hectares of undeveloped land, which consisted mostly of primary forests, plus fresh investments in 100,000 hectares already under irrigation.  The implementation of what was originally intended to be a 30-year program in 1970, was telescoped into a much shorter period by the Government that came into power in 1977 (Jayewardena, 1993).  In 1977 the government accelerated the project to be completed in 6 years.  The acceleration of the project meant scant attention was given to ecological consequences and as a result the AMDP is considered one of the primary contributing factors for the current intense human-elephant conflicts in Sri Lanka.  De Alwis (2004) reports that due to the extensive clearing by the AMDP large extents of the forests in the project area has been lost, which has resulted in the loss of critical wildlife habitats in extents of 15,000 hectares especially in the North Central Province which is one area of focus of this project.  Even currently, cursory treatment is given to natural resource management, including the resolution of conflict between settlers and wildlife - particularly the problem posed by marauding elephants (World Bank, 2004). 

Moragahakanda & Kaluganga Development Projects

The AMDP is still an ongoing development program and has just initiated the final phase of its 30-year development agenda. The final phase will harness the waters of two major rivers, the Ambanganga and Kaluganga Rivers that flow through the Central and North Central Provinces.  The MASL claims the Moragahakanda & Kaluganga Development Project (Maps 1 & 2) is the largest reservoir project to be taken up for development under the Mahaweli River Development Program.  Once completed the settlement program will stretch from the boundaries of the Minneriya/Giritale National Parks in the North Central Province through the Wasgamuwa National Park and several important forest reserves to the Victoria-Randenigala-Rantembe Sanctuary in the Central Province Mountains cutting through three climatic zones.  The vast area where these schemes are located is commonly referred to as the Lower Mahaweli Basin area and is estimated to have an elephant population of over 1,000 animals (Jayewardena, 1994).  This is one of the largest concentrations of elephants in Sri Lanka.      

As can be observed in the maps these two new Mahaweli Development Projects bisect through several important national parks, sanctuaries and forest reserves creating a challenging situation that demands innovative and effective concepts to address forest and habitat loss, biodiversity conservation, and to minimize the negative interaction of agriculture and wildlife – especially human-elephant conflicts. 

A Land Use Approach to Elephant Conservation

Sri Lanka’s primary rural industry is agriculture. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD 2005/2006) reports that more than 40 per cent of the rural poor people in Sri Lanka are small-scale farmers, who are hampered by neglect, poor economies and financial services, inappropriate or limited technology, fragmented landholding, and pre and post-harvest losses (as high as 40-50 per cent).  Adding to the considerable suffering of these people is HEC.  Conflict with elephants continues to increase due to ineffective landscape-level planning and land use that is creating agriculture based livelihoods that are incompatible with elephants.  Currently there are very few efforts to develop solutions to resolve the livelihood and environmental concerns resulting due to the negative interaction of agriculture and elephants. The challenge is even though human elephant conflict is a result of agriculture-based land used practices that are incompatible with elephants – a part of the solution to mitigate human elephant conflict has to be based on developing innovative land use strategies.  Therefore it is important to develop projects integrating social and agro forestry concepts, alternative land use and livelihoods, and elephant management technologies to encourage farmers to adapt sustainable and profitable land uses.

Current Status

1. Peradeniya University Zoology Special Students (2004/2005 batch) - Field Study Email of July 21st, 2008
2. Update report of July 10th, 2008.
3. Background Information (includes maps of the project area)
4. References
5. Maps and GIS project files (continually updated) - Please note that you have to register to view this information.
6. Image and Video Bank (coming soon!)