Human–elephant conflict

Sri Lanka has one of the largest wild Asian elephant populations — about 7,000 by the government’s estimate — living on a crowded island. As forests are cleared for settlements, farms and development, elephants and people increasingly compete for the same land, and both lose their lives.

The numbers

• 2015–2024: 3,477 elephants and 1,190 people died in the conflict (1,466 elephants and 456 people in 2015–2019; 2,011 elephants and 734 people in 2020–2024), according to figures presented in Parliament in February 2025.
• 2022: 433 elephant deaths and 145 human deaths — both the highest on record at that time.
• 2023: 470 wild elephant deaths, about 200 of them caused by people, according to the Department of Wildlife Conservation.

Why it happens

• Elephant habitat is lost and broken up by settlement schemes, farming and development.
• Crops such as paddy, banana and sugarcane are easy food for elephants, especially at the forest edge.
• Weak enforcement against illegal clearing of state land, and too few wildlife officers.

How elephants die

Most human-caused deaths come from gunshots, electrocution by illegal electric lines around farms, and hakka patas — explosives hidden in food bait, which shatter an elephant’s jaw. All of these are illegal.

What works

• Fences in the right place: electric fences along the boundary between elephant habitat and villages, as the 2020 national action plan recommends — not inside the elephants’ range.
• Community and seasonal fences around villages and paddy fields, maintained by the people who live there.
• Tracking problem bulls with GPS collars rather than mass drives: driving elephants into parks has mostly failed, and the plan recommends ending it.
• Protecting corridors — the routes elephants use between parks such as Lunugamvehera, Yala and Udawalawe.

Staying safe

• If an elephant is on the road, stop well back, keep the engine running and wait. Do not hoot, flash lights or try to pass.
• Never feed wild elephants — it teaches them to approach people and vehicles.
• In elephant areas, avoid walking on roads and paths at dusk, at night and at dawn, and carry a torch.
• Report an injured elephant, or anyone setting hakka patas or illegal wires, to the nearest Department of Wildlife Conservation office or the police.