Attacks keep villagers fearful at night
More than 55,000 families living in villages in the Puttalam and Matale districts are facing increasingly high levels of threat from elephants and are abandoning cultivable land to stay safe.
Wild elephants continually roam these villages at night, damaging crops and homes, sometimes attacking residents.
A third of the 16 Puttalam divisional secretariats are subject to severe attacks while minor damage is reported in other divisions.
The vulnerable areas include 460 villages in Anamaduwa, Navagaththegama, Maha Kambukkadawala, Karuwalgaswewa, Wanathamulla and Pallama. About 200,000 people here live in fear of harm to life and property.
Elephant attacks have become a serious problem, Puttalam Distict Secretary N.H.M. Chitrananda said. “As a result, there are many cultivable lands abandoned in our district,” he added.
“When attacked by elephants, we are given compensation only for deaths or attacks. I have made many appeals to the higher officers asking for compensation for other damage too, but all in vain,” he said.
The officer in charge of the Wild Elephant Controlling Unit in Puttalam, W.M.K.B.N. Bandara, said he lacks resources to help the villagers adequately.
“We are making a great effort to drive the elephants away but the dearth of officers poses a problem,” Mr. Bandara said.
In the Galewela area of the Matale district, 5,000 families face high levels of conflict with elephants.
People living in Dadubendiruppa, Hinukgala, Damana, Dewahuwa, Wetakoluwala, Pibidunugama and
Galpaya are the worst affected.
They say elephants from the Ranawa forest reserve enter villages at night and early in the mornings, laying waste to the paddy harvest and damaging homes.
The elephants arrive as early as 6pm, making it hazardous for villagers who have gone to work to return to their homes. Residents say they cannot even go to the nearest hospital at night in the event of sudden illness, due to fear of elephant attack.
“This is not something that has happened recently: we have been facing this for 15 years,” said Thilak Mudalige, a victim of an elephant attack.
“Elephants invaded the lands when we are about to collect the annual harvest and they destroy the houses,” he said.
Residents said the Department of Wildlife Conservation has not provided solutions.
“Many of the villagers get into debt to cultivate their fields, and when elephants attack the crops they are unable to pay their debts,” he said.
Homes built with hard-earned money saved over years are demolished by elephants in one night. Two weeks ago, elephants attacked a mango cultivation and pushed one of the trees onto the owner’s house. The inmates narrowly escaped death.
Villages said that electric fences have not been a solution as the elephants break through the fences.