Human elephant conflict: case of Amapra district, with special reference to Sammanthurai divisional secretariat

Abstract

The association between man and elephant in Sri Lanka is ancient. Elephants being the largest terrestrial herbivores require relatively large areas and diversity of environments to forage. With an increase in human population density and changes in the land-use patterns, elephant habitat is being continuously reduced. Many species including Asian elephants face an increasingly conflictual relationship with humans when competing for space and resources. In Sri Lanka, approximately 50 human were killed by elephants and approximately 100 elephants were killed by human each year. The main objective of this study was to analyze the nature of human elephant conflict in coastal belt of Ampara district with special reference to Sammanthurai Divisional Secretariat Division (DSD) where a higher numbers of such incidences were taken place in recent years. The Primary data needed for this study was collected from Sammanthurai DSD which consist of 51 GND. Thepurposive samples were selected from GNDwhere the highest number ofincidents were reported. This study was conducted from April to September, 2016. Thirty households of farmingcommunity that were affected by elephants were interviewed.15 were males and 15 were females. Farmers represented 90% of the total number interviewed.The households in the sample were affected by theelephants repeatedly frequency of the of attacks were recorded as 35 times per year between 2005 to sept 2016.Most of the time attacks by the elephants were taken place in the night. Highly affected crops by elephants were paddy, coconut, banana respectively. Considering the characteristics of farmfamilies, the majority were low income people representing income categories of less than Rs/=50001-10000/month and less than Rs5000/= respectively.Majority of the people (85%) lives within 3 kilometers distance to the Wallathappitty jungle.However 12 human death, 5 elephant death, 16 human injurious weretaken place in the human-elephant confrontations were taken place from 2005- September, 2016. All the farmers paid a payment for elephant protection to border guards.This is paid by money that Rs50/= per acre during the season.In Sammanthurai,Rs 1301250/= paid for elephant protection from 2005 to 2016 September. All the farmers paid payment for elephant protection to border guards. Only 3.5% of people were compensated for their losses out of total expenditure by government authorities.