- Puttalam District HEC gets worse: MP
- Privately-built fences more effective: Priyankara
The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) plans to include approximately 2,000 Civil Security Department (CSD) officers to its cadre to maintain elephant fences around the country in a bid to address its lack of manpower resources for maintenance, The Sunday Morning learns.
Speaking to The Sunday Morning, DWC Director General Chandana Sooriyabandara said that the lack of manpower was the main issue faced by the department when maintaining elephant fences in the country.
“Presently, 4,000 officers are working with us to maintain elephant fences which total a distance of 5,200 km. This is for the day-to-day maintenance of these fences,” said Sooriyabandara. “However, since even 4,000 isn’t enough for this purpose, we plan to involve about 2,000 CSD officers, bringing our total workforce up to 6,000 to maintain elephant fences.”
Minister of Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation Pavithra Wanniarachchi told Parliament on Thursday (6) that issues with maintaining elephant fences had arisen due to the lack of manpower over the years.
In response to a question about a permanent solution to address the Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC) in the Puttalam District, she said that 20 elephant fences had been constructed in the district, totalling a distance of 350 km.
However, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) MP Jagath Priyankara, who represents the Puttalam District, pointed out that fences constructed by the DWC were failing to keep elephants out of villages while fences constructed privately were much more effective.
Priyankara told The Sunday Morning that some farmers had privately constructed 10-foot high and two-foot deep fences around their cultivations.
“We are observing that these are much more effective than the DWC fences, which are only about five feet tall. Elephants either knock those down or jump over them. Now elephants are easily coming to the urban areas of the district as well, so there is a fair question of whether the DWC fences are effective at all.”
He added that Wanniarachchi had agreed to come to a discussion with district-level leaders and organisations about the issue. “We hope to get a date this month for a meeting.
Source: the Morning
