News
Sigiriya’s truant elephants destroy coconut plantation in Dambulla
View(s):By Kanchana Kumara Ariyadasa in Dambulla
A herd of wild elephants has invaded a thirty-acre coconut grove in the Wewalawewa Alakolawewa area of Dambulla and uprooted and destroyed over a hundred fruit-bearing coconut trees.
In the past few days alone, more than a hundred coconut trees have been uprooted, their branches eaten, the trunk trampled, and the coconut pulp eaten by the animals, farmers and villagers said.
The farmers say wild elephants have been raiding this ten-year old coconut plantation for several years.
The fertile land yields bountiful harvest but by now more than six hundred coconut trees have been completely destroyed by the wild elephants. 
Last week there was another raid by the herd causing more damage.
Farmers lament that despite the damage being caused, no solution has yet been found to the problem, and urge the government to urgently pay attention to this issue.
The farmers say wild elephants in the Sigiriya Sanctuary enter villages through the Ala Kola Wewa area, as land in the reserves in Sigiriya have been given to various persons to build hotels and to cultivate crops.
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