The Wildlife Conservation Department has recently changed the protective electrified fencing system which has been implemented for the last 60 years in Sri Lanka and is taking to new methodology.
Since human beings and wild elephants have had to live together in nearly 40 percent of the country's landscape, the human-elephant conflict has grown fast.
Around 70 percent of the country's wild elephant population are presently not in forests reserves, according to reports of the conservation research institute which provides consultative services to the Wildlife Conservation Ministry.
Accordingly, the new fencing system is being implemented in the Anuradhapura, Kurunegala, Trincomalee, Hambantota and Monaragala districts, where the human-elephant conflict has been on the rise.
The new difference is that the particular protective fence is not constructed to cover the forest reservation landscape in the interior. Instead, the fence is constructed around villages or a cluster of habitats.
The villagers and entrusted with the overall construction work, maintenance, preservation and the administration of the protective fences. The Government provides construction technology and all requirements for the completion of the fence.
Simultaneously, to coordinate the programme, a 'fence society' was formed. The fence society collects a monthly membership tax for the maintenance of the village-level protective fence, Dr. Pruthiviraj Fernando said.
This would ensure the safety of both human beings and wild elephants.
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