Elephant Conservation: The Failure Of Wildlife Conservation In Sri Lanka

Abstract— Elephant conservation has been carried out for generations in Sri Lanka. But the traditional knowledge and the expertise gathered by the previous officers of the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) have not been imparted to the younger generations in the department. This situation causes the failure of elephant conservation programmes due to the lack of knowledge & expertise. Also, the scientific knowledge gathered as the outcome of most of the scientific research has not been delivered to the officers of the DWC. Therefore, wildlife officers work in the protected areas and different Ranges are not aware of and therefore do not apply the scientific knowledge to their conservation activities.

Since the problems identified above

Another important justification is the critical situation of the human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka, leading to death of hundreds of humans and elephants annually. Further, being predominantly a Buddhist country, practicing the elephant conservation measures are a social need in Sri Lanka more than in any other country where elephants are inhabited. Additionally elephants play important roles socially & culturally in Sri Lanka, in-addition to environmental & economic factors applicable in other countries. Therefore, Sri Lanka is an appropriate sample for the selected research study.

The declaration of wildlife protected areas in Sri Lanka dates back to more than 2500 years when the “Mihinthale” wildlife sanctuary has been proclaimed by King “Devanampiyathissa”. During the British colonial era, in the 19th century, the Department of Wildlife Conservation has been established and entrusted the responsibility of in-situ conservation of all flora and fauna including the wild

Once those senior officers leave the department due to retirement or some other reasons, the knowledge accrued and the expertise developed by them are lost to the department and there-by to the conservation of elephants as well as other fauna & flora. Such loss of traditional knowledge and expertise has steered to a situation that the remaining and new staff of the DWC to start their conservation efforts afresh and they too leave the department when they develop the expertise. Therefore, the traditional knowledge and the expertise developed by the staff of the DWC are lost to the conservation of elephants in Sri Lanka. However, according to Edmond Wilson Meepage, in his book, “Hathalis Wasaraka Wana Diviye Piya Satahan” in Sinhala language meaning “Footsteps of forty years in jungle life”, traditional knowledge has been passed down and practical experience has been facilitated to young wildlife officers by the senior officers by taking them in foot patrolling in the jungles for days and at times weeks” [6].

The scientific research on Asian elephant conservation in Sri Lanka has been conducted mostly by the Universities and by some interested individuals. Those research findings are predominantly used for presentations at scientific forums and publication of research papers in scientific journals.