Sri Lanka in shock treatment to reduce elephant deaths

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka will more than double its anti-elephant electric fencing, a government minister said on Wednesday, with more than 200 animals and nearly 100 people killed in human-elephant conflict so far this year.

Elephants are revered as a Buddhist symbol on the Indian Ocean island and carry caskets containing relics at temple pageants, but farmers are in constant conflict with the marauding animals raiding their crops.

Elephants are protected by Sri Lankan law as an endangered species and harming them can bring lengthy jail sentences, but there have been few prosecutions.

This year, 94 people have been killed in elephant attacks -- a much higher rate than the 146 in the whole of 2022, which was itself the highest on record.

Elephants themselves are shot or poisoned by farmers -- 238 of them up to July 14 according to official figures, an average of just over one per day.

Sri Lanka currently has 650-km of electrified fencing to protect villages against elephants, but wildlife minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi said another 1,000-km would be added.