Residents of Niyadawala in the Thambuttegama area say wild elephants entered the village overnight and knocked down close to 20 coconut trees and destroyed more than 100 banana plants, and are asking the government to act for farmers with the same urgency it shows when elephants are harmed.
Human-elephant conflict in the area is worsening, Hiru News reported on Saturday, attributing the account to its own correspondent.
Villagers say the repeated incursions are caused by an electric fence that is not built to standard. They warn that the loss of mature, bearing coconut palms — trees that take years to replace — could contribute to a coconut shortage in the future.
”Justice for the elephants and for the farmers”
Ajith Jayawardena of the organisation Mehewarak Ape told reporters the government must deliver justice both to elephants and to the farmers who suffer because of them.
Residents and the organisation’s chairman also blamed the closure of a nearby state farm — Neeraviya Farm, which they said covers several hundred acres — for the worsening conflict, saying the elephant population in that tract has risen since it shut.
The residents’ framing is pointed: when elephants come to harm, they said, the public and the government combine to rescue them, and they are asking for the same immediate intervention on behalf of farmers.
Context
Human-elephant conflict is among the most persistent rural issues in the North Central Province, and the state’s response has drawn scrutiny this month. The government has announced special training for military personnel in elephant protection and joint raids to curb elephant killings and wildlife crimes, while individual cases — such as the treatment of the tusker Kavantissa at Galgamuwa — have attracted national attention. The villagers’ complaint is that this attention runs in one direction.
Thambuttegama is an agricultural centre in the Anuradhapura district; this desk has previously covered price pressure on its peanut farmers.
Not reported
The filing does not say how many households were affected, give a value for the damage, or state whether any compensation claim has been filed under the Department of Wildlife Conservation’s scheme. It does not say how long the Niyadawala fence has been in place, who built or maintains it, or whether the Department has inspected it. No official from the Department of Wildlife Conservation or the district secretariat is quoted, and no government response is recorded. It does not say when Neeraviya Farm closed or why, and the residents’ claim that the closure raised elephant numbers is not independently assessed.
No other verified newsroom had filed on the Niyadawala incursion at the time of writing.
Source: Hiru News, 24 October (Sinhala). Hiru’s accompanying footage shows felled banana plants with unripe fruit still attached and a damaged coconut palm; it carries the broadcaster’s watermark and is not reproduced here.