Two wild elephants — a 20-year-old adult and a one-year-old calf — were electrocuted after coming into contact with an illegally rigged electric wire in the Jothiamuna area of Maligawila, Okkampitiya, in Buttala, wildlife officials said.
The live wire had been strung around a cultivation of sugarcane, papaya, banana and paddy to keep wild animals out of the crops, Newswire reported, citing Lankadeepa. The 20-year-old adult stood about six feet tall and the calf around four feet; both were killed instantly on contact, the report said.
A caretaker of the property has been arrested by wildlife officers, while the landowner who installed the fence has fled and is in hiding, according to police. A post-mortem examination of both carcasses was scheduled for Sunday, June 14. Officers from the Okkampitiya Police Station and the Monaragala Wildlife Office are jointly investigating and working to apprehend the absconding landowner.
The deaths add to a heavy 2026 toll for wild elephants in Sri Lanka — more than 128 had been recorded killed by mid-May, with illegal electric fences and farmer-set traps repeatedly cited by the Department of Wildlife Conservation as leading causes alongside train collisions and shooting incidents. The government has revoked decisions on domesticated elephants and gazetted new corridors to reduce conflict but enforcement against illegal fences in cultivation areas remains uneven.
Sources: Two wild elephants electrocuted to death in Buttala — Ada Derana, June 14; Two elephants, including calf, killed by illegal electric fence in Maligawila — Newswire / Lankadeepa, June 14.
