Pavithra promises solution to elephant-human conflict in one month!

Minister of Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation Pavithra Wanniarachchi told Parliament that it would take around one month more to come up with a permanent solution for the elephant-human conflict that resulted in deaths and losses.

 Responding to a question raised by SLPP dissident MP Jagath Kumara, on Thursday the Minister said that mega development projects and rapidly increasing people’s settlements have resulted in the loss of habitat for elephants. “We have been conducting a series of workshops with villagers, representatives of concerned NGOs, experts and our officials in those areas vulnerable to wild elephants. We have planned to come up with short term, middle term and long-term solutions for this multi-dimensional crisis. There is a need for a national policy for this crisis. Our attention is also drawn to bring about new laws for this purpose. It has now been noticed that we may not have sufficient funds to relocate villages and settlements in their entirety to prevent the human-jumbo conflict. We as a government do everything possible to solve this problem,” she said.

Asked about the welfare and future course of action with regard to the treatment of a sick wild elephant known as Agbo staying in Tirappane Ulagalla wewa area, the minister said that the problem is attended by the Wildlife Conservation Department officials.

MP Jagath Kumara said that some people and organizations collect funds from donors both local and international through social media to treat the sick elephant.

The minister said that there was no official endorsement to collect such funds to treat the animal. “The government officials are attending to this issue. I do not know whether some people collect money showing this wounded animal. We have taken all measures that we could in supplying the food and medicine to the animal. It is wrong to solicit funds for that. We have given 50,000 rupees to the regional veterinarian to buy necessary medicine. When that amount is exhausted, we replenish it,” she said.

Responding to a question by SLPP Kegalle District MP Rajika Wickramasinghe, the minister said that an extent of 1,912,970 hectare of forest lands belong to the Forest Department and that the extent amounted to 29.2 percent of total landmass of the country.