A herd of more than 100 wild elephants has been raiding villages around Mahiyangana, destroying crops, damaging houses and property, NPP parliamentarian Sudath Balagalla told a District Coordinating Committee meeting on Wednesday.
The most concrete consequence he gave was a school’s: additional classes at Girandurukotte Maha Vidyalaya have been suspended after elephants entered the school grounds, the Daily Mirror reported.
“I receive telephone calls even late at night. On Tuesday night, the principal of Girandurukotte Maha Vidyalaya called me to say that wild elephants had raided the school grounds. Fearing for the safety of the children, he suspended the additional classes held after school,” Balagalla said.
Inadequate fencing around four reserves
Balagalla attributed the movement into villages to inadequate electric fencing, naming four forest reserves the animals are coming from: Maduru Oya, Randenigala, Ratugala and Wasgamuwa. He said the conflict threatens the elephants as much as the residents.
The meeting was chaired by Minister Samantha Vidyaratne and Uva Province Governor Kapila Jayasekara. Vidyaratne said similar elephant threats had been reported at Girandurukotte, Rideemaliyedda, Haldummulla, Koslanda and Bandarawela — a spread that covers much of the province’s eastern and southern edge rather than a single locality.
He also cited two recent losses on either side of the conflict: the deaths of seven wild elephants in the Anerve area of Haldummulla, and the death of a young woman after an elephant attack at Uda Diyaluma.
Context
The pressure is not confined to Uva. This desk has reported crop destruction by elephants at Thambuttegama and Niyadawala in the North Central Province this month.
Not reported: the filing does not say where the herd is currently located or how the 100-plus figure was arrived at, gives no date or cause for the seven elephant deaths at Anerve or the Uda Diyaluma attack, does not say how much fencing exists or what new fencing is planned, and records no commitment or timeline from the Department of Wildlife Conservation. Only the Daily Mirror had filed on this committee meeting among verified newsrooms at the time of writing.