Life style
Human – Elephant Conflict Is Rising in Sri Lanka
Driven from their original habitats, the animals are raiding crops and being killed by frightened farmers, but conservationists are piloting better ways to coexist
In Makulpotha village, 89 miles northwest of Colombo, Punchibanda woke up to the trumpet of an elephant while he was sleeping in a small wooden hut built on a tree beside his vegetable farm. Fearing that the elephant could destroy his harvest of pumpkins, melons and eggplants, Punchibanda rushed to chase it away. But he could not guard his produce, and instead lost his life.
The large bull elephant charged toward the 62-year-old, who fainted out of fear; the animal crushed him to death. Over a year later, villagers still live in fear as they struggle to protect their crops from wild elephants.
Historically, elephants and humans lived in harmony in Sri Lanka. When the farmers were done harvesting their fields, they would allow elephants to feed on the stubble. But deforestation, haphazard cultivation methods and massive development projects have led to increasing human-elephant conflict in the country. Sri Lanka has the highest number of elephant deaths caused by conflict with humans, and second-highest number of human deaths caused by elephants. In 2022 and 2023, over 800 elephants in Sri Lanka died.
In a bid to balance population density across the country, people have been relocated to areas with a high density of elephants. The animals are forced to live in protected wildlife parks that have limited resources. They venture into nearby villages looking for food and water, which leads to the destruction of crops, causing the farmers to employ violent methods to get rid of them.
In other instances, elephants would get aggressive and attack farmers. If you pluck someone who lives in a town and tell them to live in a village, they would not know how to coexist with the wildlife; they would carry the fear and treat them with aggression, said Zaineb Akbarally, vice president of the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society.
People visit a sick wild elephant in Thirappane, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is home to a subspecies of endangered Asian elephants and had a population of over 5,000 elephants in 2011, according to a government survey. But Akbarally doesn’t think that s an accurate number since it is difficult to count elephants in the wild, and numbers appear to have been in decline. “We’ve pretty much lost all the elephants in the central highlands,” she said, adding that only one herd remained in the Peak Wilderness nature reserve and two elephants in Sinhraja, the country s last primary rain forest, that had previously belonged to bigger herds.
Elephants have been sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists in Sri Lanka and were considered a symbol of pride to ancient rulers, who employed them in battles. To this day, domesticated elephants play a key role in Esala Perahera, an annual Buddhist cultural and religious procession, where they carry a replica of Buddha s tooth relic (the holiest religious relic for Sri Lankan Buddhists) in a casket, caprisoned in extravagant sequin-embroidered outfits accompanied by fire performers, drummers and dancers in Kandy. However, wildlife activists allege that elephants are tortured by mahouts to perform during the procession.
Elephant populations in Sri Lanka started to fall during colonial rule as the Portuguese, Dutch and then the British captured them for export. Historical records also suggest that the British killed over 5,000 elephants in 15 years as they hunted them for sport. But after independence in 1948, as infrastructure projects started getting built in the country to provide land to the landless and reduce population density, forest cover was cleared and new farmlands were created next to the elephant habitats, which laid the ground for the current conflict.
In response, local authorities started fencing elephants inside protected wildlife parks. But two-thirds of the home ranges of wild elephants, which included their feeding, watering, mating and resting sites, lay outside these parks. This also led to overcrowding, and elephants ventured into villages. Many died of starvation or became malnourished.
Currently, there are 26 national parks in Sri Lanka, and most elephants live in the large ones such as Yala, Wilpattu, Udawalawe and Minneriya. But in a 2019 survey, conservationists found out that while humans lived in 70% of these elephant ranges, only 18.4% of the elephant ranges were in those protected parks.
Meanwhile, farmers were growing crops like sugarcane, rice and vegetables that elephants loved to eat, so they would raid and destroy the crops and knock down houses in the process. Farmers, who are often impoverished and vulnerable, tended to retaliate by shooting at them or bursting firecrackers. Between January and April of 2023, 38 elephants were shot dead in Sri Lanka, according to the Department of Wildlife Conservation.
Villagers also use jaw bombs to drive elephants away. To make these, they pack gunpowder and metal scraps with fodder and hide them inside watermelons and pumpkins, which detonate when bitten. While these instantly kill smaller animals, they end up wounding large animals like elephants or shattering their jawbone so they can no longer eat or drink and suffer a slow, painful death with injuries. In 2022, as many as 55 wild elephants died due to this explosive bait.
Christy Nikson, 36, a farmer in Thikkodai village in eastern Sri Lanka, uses a small, low-voltage electric fence to guard his farm, but it offers little to no help now. Elephants are smart. When they see the fence, they cover it with dry wood, step on it, and come to our paddy fields, he said. For six to eight months every year, when water is scarce, Nikson and the villagers have to battle with elephants every single day. Elephants also know the smell of wheat flour. And they love it, Nikson said. When we have flour or roti in our kitchens, they try to enter from our backyards, try to break into our homes, and take the food using their trunks.
It is a very painful situation for low-income rural communities at the heart of this conflict, according to Akbarally. The crops are their bread and butter, it s their livelihood. Suddenly, animals come and destroy your livelihood. We haven’t given people a sense of security either, she said. If there s some sort of compensation when farmers lose their crops, it can at least mitigate the animals being shot and killed.
While the government did introduce an insurance scheme in 2013 to cover elephant damage to crops, farmers complained it was difficult to claim the funds or that the coverage was limited. Pritiviraj Fernando, chairman of the Centre for Conservation and Research, explained that it s challenging to verify crop loss caused by elephants. If a farmer is not happy with the compensation, they can even encourage elephants to come and eat the crops. So these programs are very difficult to implement, he said, adding that the situation leads to distrust between farmers and local authorities.
Sri Lanka s three decades of civil war also had an impact on conflict between humans and elephants. When the war was underway in the northern and eastern regions, it forced people to flee their homes and abandon their farmlands. With limited human activity, wild elephants started venturing into these areas again. However, as many people started resettling in their villages after the war ended in 2009, it worsened conflict with the elephants.
Meanwhile, over the last few decades the government’s response has been a repeat of the past, as they have forced more elephants into smaller pockets of forest cover creating unsustainable conditions. They do this through elephant drives, which involve hundreds of people walking through the forest and chasing elephants away by making different kinds of noises, firing thousands of firecrackers or shooting at the sky. Electric fences are also erected on the boundaries of these protected areas so that elephants cannot return.
Yet often these elephants do end up returning to the villages. For instance, when shrublands were cleared for the Mahaweli Development Project a program that began in the 1960s, covering 39% of the country s area, aiming to develop agricultural land and create hydroelectric power facilities the wildlife department conducted a large elephant drive to move 130 elephants into the Wilpattu National Park, but about 50 of them returned.
Over 100 ended up returning after 150 elephants were driven into the Maduru Oya National Park in 1988. While the authorities haven’t done any major drives since 2006, they conduct smaller ones when people complain. But these kinds of drives only increase the aggressiveness of elephants and subject them to severe stress, said Fernando.
While young calves and adult females live in herds, adult males lead a solitary life. And it s often these bull elephants that raid crops and cause human deaths, injuries and damage to property. Over the years, researchers have found that while elephant drives chase away some of the herds they do not drive away the aggressive, solitary males.
Later on, when the Sri Lankan government realized they could not fence wild elephants, they started building holding grounds to retain and rehabilitate them. But conservationists believe that these grounds do not hold enough food for elephants. Audit reports have also revealed mismanagement of funds allocated for feeding elephants. Out of the 65 elephants that were housed at the first holding ground in Horowpathana National Park, 16 of them died in the first six years due to malnutrition. A few were shot dead while trying to escape the grounds. Irrespective of these concerns, the government is planning to build another holding ground in southern Sri Lanka.
“Almost half of the country is now shared by elephants and humans. So it shows that the attempt to limit elephants to protected areas has completely failed and it s not an option,” said Fernando.
Looking for ways to mitigate the conflict, Fernando and his team have been testing community fencing initiatives across villages in the country. They’ve been experimenting with different kinds of electric fences to be placed around farmland to protect human habitats, as opposed to national parks which limit elephants access to sites of food and water. These fences were removed after cultivation and animals were allowed to pass through the farmlands, which, Fernando said, reduced conflict and safeguarded crops.
But small organizations can only show the way, said Fernando. Initiatives have to be planned and implemented by the government. The government has always announced plans and appointed committees but no action has been taken on the ground. Just last year, Pavithradevi Wanniarachchi, the Minister of Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation, said that a new policy would be formed to address the conflict, but there has been no follow-up to that statement since then.
“We need to make the right policy and governance decisions,” Akbarally said. “Instead, we are creating more conflict by setting up more and more infrastructure developments, constantly cutting down forests and putting more pressure on these animals. It s not like the elephants come out and decide one day , ‘let s go to war with humans.’”
By Zinara Rathnayake
(New Lines Magazine)
By Zanita Careem
With Sri Lanka tourism entering a new phase of growth, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism, Professor Ruwan Ranasinghe outlined the Government’s forward looking approach, stressing that Sri Lanka must move forward, and must move beyond short term promotional efforts and build a tourism industry backed by clear strategy, stronger planning and measurable results. At the recent Press Conference, held at the SLTPB, Sri Lanka Tourism launched two World Bank supported consultancy assignments to develop a national tourism strategy and global promotional campaign road map, as the country seeks to attract high spending visitors and generate greater economic reforms. The National Tourism strategy planning consultancy for 2026-2031 will prepare a five-year framework, covering a forward looking approach, centred on transforming tourism into a more competitive sustainable and high value sector. For Sri Lanka, this initiative marks an important shift towards strategic, sustainable and inclusive tourism development with the aim of giving greater economic opportunities to the people. The Deputy Minister said the country does possess the natural beauty, cultural heritage and hospitality needed to compete globally. What is required now, he emphasised, is a coordinated approach that brings together government, industry stakeholders and international expertise.
For Professor Ranasinghe the way forward is not simply about bringing more tourists to Sri Lanka but about creating greater value from every visitor, diversifying markets, encouraging investment, strengthening the tourism institutions and developing a destination that can complete confidentially on the world stage. His speech reflected a clear message, Sri Lanka has the attraction, diversity and potential to compete with the world’s best destinations, but must be driven by stronger strategy, sharper global marketing and co-ordinated action.
He emphasised that Sri Lanka has not lacked tourism plans in the past. Previous governments and tourism authorities had undertaken considerable work and developed important plans but the challenges was that these efforts had not given the strength, continuity and implementation mechanisms needed to produce the desired results. The new approach, he stressed, is about giving tourism greater teeth through stronger planning, better governance, targeted investment, sustainable development and a much aggressive presence in the international markets.
(Q) Why is the launch of the National Strategies Planning Consultancy a major milestone for Sri Lanka’s tourism industry?
(A) The launch marks a turning point because it introduces a structured, evidence-based framework for tourism development. For years, Sri Lanka focused primarily on increasing visitor numbers, but despite strong arrivals, revenue growth lagged. This consultancy, supported by the World Bank, ensures that future strategies emphasise value creation, sustainability, and inclusivity. It is the first time Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is being aligned with global best practices, institutional reforms, and a clear roadmap for implementation, making it a landmark initiative.
(Q) What are key priorities that the new national tourism strategy will focus on?
(A) The new strategy prioritises enhancing visitor spending and length of stay, reducing revenue leakage by strengthening local supply chains, modernising institutions and regulations, and embedding sustainability across all tourism activities. It also emphasises skills development through curriculum modernisation at SLOTH, digital transformation of tourism data systems, and diversification of tourism products to attract high-value segments such as wellness, eco-tourism, and cultural tourism.
(Q) What major gaps in Sri Lanka’s existing tourism strategy do you hope to address?
(A) Previous strategies were heavily arrival-driven, with limited focus on yield per visitor. There was weak differentiation among destinations, limited integration with local communities, and insufficient institutional coordination. The new plan addresses these gaps by embedding sustainability, strengthening provincial tourism bureaus, diversifying products, and ensuring that tourism revenue benefits local communities more directly.
(Q) What is the vision behind Sri Lanka’s new global promotional campaign road map?
(A) The vision is to reposition Sri Lanka as a premier global destination by highlighting its unique blend of culture, nature, and wellness. The campaign, developed with international expertise, will use data-driven marketing, influencer collaborations, and destination storytelling to reach high-value markets. It aims to move beyond generic promotion and instead create a strong, differentiated brand identity for Sri Lanka.
(Q) How will this campaign change the way Sri Lanka is positioned and marketed internationally?
Professor Ruwan Ranasinghe: New international narrative for Sri Lanka
(A) Sri Lanka will be marketed not just as a tropical island but as a destination offering diverse, high-value experiences. The campaign will highlight wellness retreats, heritage tourism, eco-adventures, and community-based experiences. This repositioning will attract discerning travellers who seek authenticity and are willing to spend more, thereby increasing tourism’s contribution to the economy.
(Q) How will the Ministry ensure that the strategy does not remain another document, but is actually implemented?
(A) The consultancy includes costed action plans, institutional reforms, and monitoring mechanisms to ensure accountability. Stakeholder workshops and validation sessions will embed ownership across government, private sector, and communities. The Ministry is committed to ensuring that this strategy translates into tangible outcomes through structured implementation and regular progress reviews.
(Q) Are we ready to market Sri Lanka to the world at a much bigger level or do you first need to fix the gaps in the visitor experience before spending heavily on promotion?
(A) Both aspects must go hand in hand. While global promotion is essential to reposition Sri Lanka, the visitor experience must be strengthened to ensure repeat visitation and positive word-of-mouth. The strategy priorities service standards, infrastructure, and product diversification so that promotional spending translates into genuine value for visitors and communities alike.
(Q) What does the World Bank’s involvement bring to Sri Lanka’s tourism strategy that was missing from previous initiatives?
(A) The World Bank brings international expertise, credibility, and funding support. Its involvement ensures that Sri Lanka’s strategy is benchmarked against global best practices, with stronger institutional frameworks and better data systems. Unlike past initiatives, this partnership emphasizes sustainability, inclusivity, and value-driven growth, ensuring long-term resilience for the industry.
(Q) Will the World Bank’s expertise help Sri Lanka move from simply increasing tourist arrivals to attracting high-value tourists?
(A) Yes, the World Bank’s guidance is focused on shifting from volume-driven growth to yield-driven growth. By strengthening product development, diversifying markets, and embedding sustainability, Sri Lanka will attract high-value tourists who spend more, stay longer, and contribute positively to local communities and conservation efforts.
(Q) Will the new strategy place greater emphasis on sustainable and responsible tourism?
(A) Absolutely. Sustainability is at the heart of the new strategy. ECT-tourism, community-based tourism, and conservation initiatives will be scaled up to protect Sri Lanka’s fragile ecosystems and heritage. Responsible tourism practices will be embedded across the industry to ensure that growth does not come at the expense of the environment or local communities.
(Q) With the World Bank bringing international expertise to Sri Lanka’s tourism strategy, what is the one major transformation for the world to see in Sri Lanka as a tourism destination?
(A) The major transformation will be Sri Lanka’s repositioning as a high-value, sustainable destination. The world will see Sri Lanka move beyond being a volume-driven market to becoming a model of responsible tourism, where visitors enjoy authentic experiences while contributing to local prosperity and environmental conservation. This shift will redefine Sri Lanka’s global image and ensure long-term competitiveness.
By Zanita Careem
Behind every memorable dining experience is a chef whose passion transforms ingredients into something extraordinary. At Taj Samudra Colombo, the hotel’s Executive Chef, Sajesh Nair brings culinary artistry, precision and a deep understanding of flavours, curating dishes that are as refined as they are memorable.
With his passion for quality ingredients, attention to details and commitment to culinary excellence, Chef Nair continues to create flavours, turning the finest ingredients into culinary masterpieces, and transforming the dining table into a stage of indulgence.
Behind every memorable dining experience is a Chef who understands that food is more than what appears on a plate. For Chef Sajesh Nair cooking has been a lifelong journey, shaped by tradition, discipline, curiosity and a passion for authentic flavours.
With an impressive 30 years in the culinary tradition, including 17 years with Taj Hotels, Chef Sajesh Nair has built a career round creating a distinctive dining experience, while remaining deeply connected to the heritage of the cuisines he represented.
His journey with Taj has taken him through some of the group’s most prestigious properties. He was the Executive Chef at the celebrated Taj Falakruma, in Hyderabad, where he became particularly recognised for his expertise in Hyderabad and Nizami cuisine. “My philosophy was rooted in preserving traditional techniques while presenting them with refinement and creativity.” My passion for cooking began at an early age, “My journey was shaped by an early and lasting influence of my father.’’ It was through him that Sajesh developed an appreciation for food, discipline and dedication behind creating something truly special.
Turning ingredients into memorable experiences
His culinary credentials also came into spotlight when he led the team preparing an elaborate royal inspired menu for a high profile dinner at Taj Falakuma Palace, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ivanka Trump.
At Taj Samudra Colombo, Chef Sajesh brought his wealth of experience to Sri Lanka’s hospitality scene. His culinary leadership extended to many restaurents, including the revamped Indian Restaurant Navaratne where he has created an experience, centred around cuisines from all parts of India. Adding depth to this culinary journey, Chef Sajesh philosophy fits naturally into the restaurant’s identity, offering guests an introduction to India’s culinary traditions while maintaining the standard of Taj hospitality. Navaratne has become more than an Indian restaurant, it’s a culinary passage to India with Sajesh Nair’s experience in helping bringing its flavours, traditions and stories to the table. Chef Sajesh Nair has a long Taj Hotel career and in Sri Lanka, as the Executive Chef of Golden Dragon – one of the hotel’s specialist restaurant, where he has brought his expertise and creativity to the kitchen, creating flavours that have delighted diners from all walks of life. His association with Golden Dragon, the Chinese restaurant, began in India where he worked at the restaurant as part of his early Taj Samudra hotel’s career. That experience gave him the exposure to the Chinese wider culinary techniques at the Golden Dragon Colombo.
Chef Sajesh Nair: Executive Chef, Taj Samudra, Colombo. Maestro behind flavours
At Taj Samudra Colombo, the Yumi Japanese restaurant is one of the hotel’s speciality dining outlets, His strength lies in creating dishes that balance authentic flavours with contemporary presentation, while his attention to detail and understanding of ingredients gave each creation its distinctive character. He embraced a wider gastronomic repertoire, mastering flavours and techniques from across the world. Chef Sajesh Nair’s culinary canvas extended beyond Indian cuisine. Nair’s role was not simply about mastering one cuisine but about creating different dining experience to suit different tastes. He curated extensive festive menus at Ports of Call and worked across the hotel’s speciality restaurants .
Chef Sajesh Nair’s journey extends beyond the restaurant kitchen with his career giving him opportunities to prepare food for celebrations, distinguished personalities and high profile guests in Sri Lanka and abroad. His work at the Golden Dragon and at the Yumi restaurent further reflect his versatility as a executive. Chef Nair led the culinary team at Taj Falaknuma Palace when a dinner was hosted for Narendra Modi.
Chef Nair and his team prepared the elaborate five-course royal Hyderabad/Nizami menu for Ivanka Trump during her Hyderabad visit. Mukesh Ambani and Ratan Tata both were among the prominent. Indian business leaders who attended the gala dinner. Among the distinguished personalities to experience Chef’s culinary artistry was Cherie Blair, who was among the guests at the glittering banquet at Taj Falaknuma Palace in Hyderbad during the 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Summit. He also curated menus for Mohamed Azharuddin’s wedding reception at Taj Mahal Palace. At this wedding he worked as a young Chef de Partie at the hotel where he won rave reviews. Later he steadily worked his way through the demanding hierachy of professional kitchens.
In Sri Lanka he has created menus for cricketers, both Sri Lankans and Indians. He was also the part of the team when he created various menus during PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka when he stayed at the Taj Samudra. He has also curated menus for all the higher profile personalities, like corporate clients and political figureheads, including the PM of Sri Lanka, Harini Amarasuriya.
From royal banquests in India to distinguished tables in Sri Lanka, Chef Sajesh Nair’s culinary journey is one marked by experience, versatility and an enduring passion for creating memorable dining experiences. His career reflects a Chef who has continually evolved with the times, while remaining rooted in the craft.
He quipped “For me food is more than what is served on a plate it is a way of connecting people.”
The Ceylon Chamber of Women Entrepreneurs (CCWE), in collaboration with the University of Kelaniya, brought together policymakers, development partners, private-sector leaders, academics, civil society organisations and women entrepreneurs at the National Workshop “Advocating for Change: Women’s Economic Empowerment through Collective Action.”
The workshop formed part of the FAME – Feminism: Action and Mobilisation for an Inclusive Economy Project, supported by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), and focused on identifying practical pathways to create a more inclusive and enabling entrepreneurial ecosystem for women in Sri Lanka.
The national dialogue provided a platform to bring together policy-level perspectives with the experiences of women entrepreneurs and grassroots organisations, while presenting research evidence on the barriers, opportunities and institutional changes required to strengthen women’s participation in entrepreneurship and economic development.
Welcoming participants, Dr. Ayanthi Gurusinghe, President of the Ceylon Chamber of Women Entrepreneurs, emphasised that women’s economic empowerment cannot be achieved through isolated interventions or training programmes alone. She highlighted the importance of connecting women entrepreneurs with finance, technology, markets, knowledge, networks and policy-making institutions, while ensuring that the voices of women, at community level, are represented in national discussions. She noted that the purpose of “Advocating for Change” is to bring these different voices together and move from identifying challenges towards practical and sustainable solutions.
Dr. Gurusinghe further stressed the importance of collective action among government institutions, development partners, academia, the private sector, women’s chambers and community organisations to create meaningful economic opportunities for women across Sri Lanka.
Partnerships for Progress:
France’s Continued Support for Women’s Economic Empowerment, Matthieu John, Deputy Ambassador of the Embassy of France, highlighted the importance of partnerships in advancing inclusive economic development and reflected on the contribution of the FAME partnership in Sri Lanka.
Together we rise: power of collective action
He emphasised the value of strengthening women’s participation in economic decision-making and creating opportunities that enable women not only to establish enterprises but also to build sustainable businesses capable of contributing to employment, innovation and economic growth.The participation of France and AFD in the programme reinforced the importance of international development partnerships that support locally led initiatives, research, advocacy and collective action for women’s economic empowerment.
Creating an Enabling Ecosystem for Women Entrepreneurs:
Delivering the keynote address, Yasas Hewage, Chairman of the Industrial Development Board (IDB), focused on the importance of creating an enabling ecosystem in which women entrepreneurs can move beyond micro and livelihood-based enterprises towards sustainable, growth-oriented businesses. He highlighted the role of enterprise-development institutions in providing entrepreneurs with access to technical knowledge, technology, productivity improvement, business-development services, finance and markets.
Hewage also emphasised that strengthening women-owned enterprises should be viewed not merely as a gender or social-development intervention, but as an important component of Sri Lanka’s wider industrial and economic development
The National Workshop concluded with a call for stronger coordination and continued collective action among government, development partners, financial institutions, academia, the private sector, women’s organisations and entrepreneurs.
Among the broader priorities emerging from the dialogue were the need to strengthen access to finance and markets; improve technology, digital and business-development support; create stronger pathways from micro-enterprise to sustainable business growth; strengthen institutional coordination; improve access to opportunities for women outside Colombo; and ensure that women entrepreneurs have a stronger voice in policy and economic decision-making.
CCWE emphasised that the dialogue is intended to contribute to a wider process of evidence-based advocacy for women’s economic empowerment, ensuring that recommendations are informed not only by research and institutional perspectives but also by the lived experiences of women entrepreneurs themselves.
The workshop reaffirmed a central message: Women’s economic empowerment is not solely a women’s issue—it is fundamental to Sri Lanka’s inclusive economic growth, industrial development and long-term prosperity.
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