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.
