The Committee that was appointed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to prepare a national action plan to resolve the human-elephant conflict has already handed its report over to the President.
The Committee was chaired by Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando, the head of the Centre for Conservation and Research along with Wildlife Ministry Additional Secretary Vernon Perera.
DWC Additional Secretary Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya and Open University Senior Lecturer Dr. U.K.G.K. Padmalal, Jaffna University Dr. S.Wijeyamohan, Wildlife Director General Chandana Sooriyabandara, Conservator General of Forests W.A.C. Weragoda, Agrarian Development Commissioner General M.B.Weerasekara, Engineer K.D.N. Siriwardhana, Irrigation Directors General R.M.Wanninayake, and L.M.G.C. Bandara, Anuradhapura District Secretaries W.A.Dharmasiri, Gunadasa Samarasinghe, W.H.A. Karunarathne, M.D.L.Bandaranayaka, R.M.R.Rathnayake and Born Free foundation's Wildlife Scientist Manori Gunawardhana are the other members.
The Presidential Committee was appointed on July 22 last year and its tenure was extended because of the COVID pandemic.
The Members have recommended a long-term elephant management plan and a committee to be appointed to formulate the plan.
Rs. 1,600 million will be spent to implement the short and the medium term solutions. They include village electric fences, electric fences around paddy fields, non community based electric fences, relocating electric fences, medium scale elephant drives distribution surveys, elephant census, and GPS collaring among others.
