Elephant projects

Long-Term Conservation in Action

The Hard Data

Human–Elephant Conflict (HEC)

Sri Lanka is home to one of the last remaining wild Asian elephant populations in the world. Densely populated with humans, it is 

  • Mortality crisis — 470 elephant deaths and 176 human deaths were recorded in 2023 alone. This represents a mortality rate unsustainable for a population of just ~6,000 elephants (2011 census; 2024 census pending).
  • Habitat pressure — elephants now survive in only ~60% of their historic range due to agricultural expansion, settlements, and unplanned fencing.
  • Conflict concentration — hotspots cluster in the dry zone, especially in Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, and Hambantota districts, where poor fence design has fragmented elephant corridors.

  • Leading causes of elephant mortality include shootings, improvised explosives (“hakka patas”), electrocution and train collisions—documented in official breakdowns.

Conflict solutions

Mobile Wildlife Response Unit

A deployable team of wildlife veterinarians, rangers and conflict‑mitigation officers that can move rapidly to incident sites and coordinate with communities and the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC). What it does:

  • Emergency Veterinary:  darting, field surgery, and relocation for injured elephants, leopards, and other large mammals.injured by snares, electrocution, vehicles or conflict.

  • Rapid, non‑lethal conflict mediation (deterrents, crowd management, safe elephant passage) to de‑escalate crop‑raid situations.

  • Evidence-based deterrence: pilot projects for solar-powered fences designed according to corridor-use studies, not political boundaries.

  • Incident logging & evidence collection: GPS, photos, cause‑of‑death, deterrent performance to feed policy and prevention.

  • Community Training: sessions led with DWC rangers to align village-level practices with proven conflict-reduction methods. E.g., properly sited community‑managed seasonal electric fences; avoiding permanent fencing of seasonal fields, which can worsen HEC by blocking movements).

Why we emphasize

Evidence‑based Mitigation

Sri Lanka’s National Action Plan (2020) reviews and prioritizes tools ranging from fencing to landscape management; independent studies show well‑planned community fences can reduce crop damage, while poor siting/maintenance or fencing seasonal fallows can be counterproductive. Our MWRU is designed to operate within that framework and strengthen implementation where gaps exist.

  • Establish <6-hour emergency response capacity across Southern and Central provinces.

  • Log and publish at least 150 conflict incidents into a public-access database.

  • Conduct 10+ community training sessions with pre- and post-evaluation metrics.

  • Pilot 3 science-based fence projects, measuring changes in elephant crop raids.

  • Sign formal MoU with DWC ensuring government integration.

FUND ELEPHANT PROTECTION