Clearing invasive plants at Thabbowa brought back grassland — and kept elephants out of villages

An elephant habitat enrichment programme centred on the Thabbowa Reservoir has shown promising results in reducing the movement of wild elephants into villages in search of food, the Ministry of Environment says, according to the Daily Mirror.

The approach tries to address human-elephant conflict by meeting elephants’ natural food and water needs inside forest ecosystems, rather than by keeping them out of villages alone.

What was done

The programme is run jointly by the Ministry of Environment and Clean Sri Lanka, and focuses on developing reservoir catchments and surrounding forest into enriched wildlife habitat. Its first phase was launched around Kala Wewa and Thabbowa Reservoir.

About a year ago, an operation removed invasive plant species threatening the Thabbowa environment. Government officials, environmental scientists, members of the tri-forces and local residents contributed labour and technical expertise.

Officials from the Department of Wildlife Conservation and the Department of Forest Conservation have monitored progress since.

What changed

Field observations indicate that, after the invasive plants were cleared, grasslands regenerated naturally along the reservoir’s edges, drawing wild elephants back to the water’s edge. Officials have also observed a decline in elephants entering nearby villages to feed.

As part of the wider effort, 113 forest areas have been declared protected reserves under the Vanaspathi National Programme.

The work falls under the government’s “A Sustainable Biosphere, An Evergreen Life” policy. Following the results at Thabbowa and Kala Wewa, the Ministry has prepared plans to extend the model to other environmentally sensitive wetlands and forest reserves affected by human-elephant conflict.

Not reported

The Daily Mirror gives no figures for the reduction in village incursions, no baseline to measure it against, and no area cleared or replanted. It does not name the invasive species removed, and does not say over what period the decline was observed or whether rainfall over the same year could account for part of it.

It also does not name the further sites the Ministry intends to cover, or give a timetable or budget for extending the model.