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Tackling jumbo problem: DWC holds interactive session with scientists, conservationists
The crowd of scientists and conservationists
Interactive was the session when the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) invited scientists and conservationists to focus on the precious wild elephants of Sri Lanka.
The DWC, on Monday, moved away from ‘official’ tradition where government departments are not only reluctant but also hesitant to seek the views and opinions of scientists and those working at ground-level, to discuss and debate elephant issues.
The full-day ‘Workshop on an Island-wide Survey of Wild Elephants in Sri Lanka – 2017’ organized by the DWC at the Grand Monarch Hotel in Talawathugoda saw in-depth discussions and debates on elephant issues as well as whether a nation-wide or localised survey was the need of the hour.
“Conservation and management of elephants in the country have become an important issue given the escalation of the human-elephant conflict (HEC) and for better development planning,” the DWC said, adding that as the management authority for elephants and other wildlife, the DWC needed to know the status of elephants.
While a heavy contingent of DWC officials, headed by Director-General W.S.K. Pathiratne, was present clearly indicating the importance of the subject and their commitment to protecting wild elephants, the other members at the workshop consisted of technical experts in the field and conservationists.
The aim of this consultative workshop was to develop a suitable methodology to gather information with regard to behavioural and ranging patterns and structure and composition, to reduce the HEC and for better wild elephant conservation and management in the light of rapid development, well-armed with facts.
With DWC’s Deputy Director (Planning & ICT), Ranjan Marasinghe giving an overview and fielding the questions directed at him, exhaustive presentations were made by Dr. S. Wijeyamohan of the Rajarata University and Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando of the Centre for Conservation and Research. The sessions were chaired by former DWC Director-General Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya.
DWC’s Ranjan Marasinghe fielding questions
The discussions revolved around the scope of a survey of elephants, with many conservationists reminding that “right now” is a critical phase in elephant conservation.
“Sri Lanka and its wild elephants are ‘extremely unique’,” pointed out Dr. Fernando who has conducted extensive research on elephants, explaining that 61% of the country has elephants and keeping aside the Protected Areas, about 70% of the elephant range areas in the country have people too.
“Among 13 range countries, Sri Lanka is unique because we have a largely contiguous wild elephant population. As such, Sri Lanka’s wild elephants can be considered a single population,” added Dr. Fernando.
The workshop came up with specific focus areas, as detailed by Dr. Pilapitiya, which need to be further discussed and dealt with. They included: Does Sri Lanka need to map the finer-scale distribution of wild elephants; there is a need for data to ensure that the 16 connectivity areas with regard to wild elephants remain so in the light of rapid development; do we need localised elephant numbers or national elephant numbers?; is there a need to map electric fences put up to mitigate the HEC?; and also the need to map the critical HEC areas.
A core 12-member team comprising DWC officials, researchers and non-governmental organisations working in this arena was tasked with drawing up a game-plan promptly and reporting back to the bigger forum.
Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya chairing the session