A five-year-old boy and a 41-year-old father of two died on Friday morning after contact with an electric wire strung around a house at Dayasirigama, Ellewewa, in the Aralaganwila area to keep wild elephants away.
Aralaganwila Police said the deaths happened at about 9.30 a.m. The child, a resident of Daluagama in Ja-Ela, was staying with family members at the house and was playing in the yard with another child when he touched the live wire running around the property.
The 41-year-old homeowner, a father of two, came out to try to save him and was also electrocuted, suffering serious injuries. He was taken to Dehiattakandiya Hospital, where he later died, police said.
Aralaganwila Police are continuing investigations.
Why the wire was there
Electrified fencing is widely used by households on the edge of elephant habitat in the Polonnaruwa and Ampara districts, where crop raiding and night-time incursions are routine. Properly engineered conservation fences run on energisers that deliver a short, high-voltage, low-current pulse intended to deter rather than injure. Illegally improvised versions tapped directly from mains supply are lethal on contact, and they kill both people and elephants.
Neither the source account nor police have said which type was in use at the house, who installed it, or whether it was connected to the mains. No arrest has been reported.
The deaths come against a backdrop of sustained pressure on the human–elephant frontier. Parliament was told this month that 455 wild elephants were killed in 2025, and the Environment Ministry agreed on the same day as this incident to put wildlife officers and the Tri-Forces into a joint operations room, with strengthened legal measures against electrocution and improvised explosive baits.
This report rests on a single verified newsroom. No other verified outlet had filed on the incident at the time of writing, which is common for local accidents reported late in the Colombo evening.
