This eNewsletter is an urgent appeal requesting your support to help conserve a critically endangered population of elephants. Their habitat is being destroyed due to a large hydro power and irrigation development project in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka. The largest concentration of Sri Lankan elephants are found in this province.
The Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society has been requested by the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) and the Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka (MASL) to develop solutions and strategies to address land use, livelihoods, human-elephant conflicts and elephant conservation issues that will arise due to the Morgahakanda and Kaluganga Development Projects of the Mahaweli Development Program.
We have been conducting field work with the support of foreign and local volunteers, including groups of students from the Peradeniya University. The information that is been gathered by the SLWCS will contribute tremendously to the ongoing discussions to develop solutions to address the land use, livelihood and environmental issues especially human elephant conflicts (HEC) that will arise due to these two projects. The results of the field surveys that we have conducted up to now are summarized below. As both development projects are ongoing we need to speed up the information gathering process by running multiple survey teams in this vast area so that we can develop solutions that can be applied immediately.
The field studies consists of socio economic and elephant surveys to collect baseline data. The elephant surveys were initiated at the beginning of the dry season and covered the total area of the Kaluganga Development Scheme.
The objectives of the surveys were to:
- Estimate the elephant populations in the area.
- Identify elephant ranging areas.
- Assessment of habitats and habitat suitability.
- Identify existing elephant corridors within the impact zone
- Identify suitable areas for alternate corridors.
- Identify suitable resettlement sites.
- Identify areas to apply HEC mitigation techniques.
- The elephant population in the area increases during the dry season and as a result HEC increases too.
- The increase in elephant numbers during the dry season is associated to the availability of perennial water sources in the area.
- The type and quality of habitats play a crucial role.
- The quality of the habitat determines elephant abundance in an area.
- There are two existing corridors that go through the project impact area and the proximate areas.
- According to the MASL the proposed resettlement areas are supposed to be ideal elephant habitat. They claim that a large number of herds use the area as a feeding ground during the dry season. Investigating the MASL observations will be a part of the future field research efforts.
- There are some suitable habitats that can be integrated to establish Managed Elephant Reserves (MERs) and Elephant Conservation Areas (ECAs). Once we have identified the most suitable habitats to establish corridors then it is possible to carry out habitat enrichment to link habitat fragments to form corridors.
Human Elephant Conflict in the Area
Human Elephant conflict has begun to increase since recently in the Grama Niladhari Divisions (GNDs are village level administrative divisions) that were surveyed. Of the total number of village households that were interviewed, 82% of the families have experienced elephant raids. Ninety five percent were crop damages, 3% were house damages and 2% were human casualties. According to information that had been gathered from 2005-2007, rice and banana are the most raided crops. Each villager annually loses Rs.12,240 (~US$120) due to HEC. This is a substantial amount to lose considering an average villager’s total annual income is ~$300. Two elephants had been killed in the area, one in 2002 at Katumanaoya and the other in 2006 in Rambukoluwa-Sawanpitiya. Both areas are nearby to Kaluganga. According to the villagers, elephant raids are seasonal and they are most intense from the months of May through October which is the dry season. The following areas were identified by villagers as places where elephant gather in large numbers.
Name of locality and nearest GND
- Madugaslanda forest, Rambukoluwa
- Hobarakada, Mannakatiya Gangahenwala
- Moragahaulpatha, Karandamulla
- Athkimbulawala forest, Akarahadiya
- Ambanmulla, Balagollayaya Minirankatiya
- Galwala, Katumanna Halminiyaity
- Kiulpotha, Gonawala
- Makulmada, Pallegama
- Galgedawala, Dagavilla Madumana
- Hamagahaulpatha, Kotakumbura Ranamuragama
The current field work was conducted by the Society at its own expense. Therefore we have had to limit the scale of our field research efforts. We will continue with the research through October 2008. Once we have completed the surveys we will organize a meeting at Dambulla or Bakamuna bringing together the Department of Wildlife Conservation, Mahaweli Authority, Forest Department and other line agencies to discuss HEC mitigation and elephant conservation efforts in detail. Both divisional level and HQ level personnel of all the line agencies will be present at this meeting.
URGENT REQUEST
We need funds urgently to continue with the surveys. Based on the available funds we will run multiple teams concurrently.
From August-October 2008 we need to conduct 9 Field Trips of 7-10 days each. Each field trip costs about $1300. The costs includes salaries, transport, accommodation/food, equipment, GIS expertise, analyzing data and writing reports. While the total cost to conduct all the surveys is US$12,000, even small contributions will help us to continue with our field surveys and conservation efforts. We also have to conduct at least 5 stakeholder meetings at both the local and regional/national level to promote sustainable solutions for the MASL, DWC and FD to implement.
Visit www.slwcs.org/projects/mg&kg or email info@slwcs.org for details.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We gratefully acknowledge the contributions and support of the following people and institutions:
- Zoology Special students (2004/2005 batch) of Faculty of Science of University of Peradeniya for assisting us with the field work. Their participation helped us to move ahead with the project rapidly.
- Foreign volunteers from Global Vision International and World Wide Experience who assisted us with our research efforts.
WANT TO HELP
You can make a cash donation of any amount via Credit Card or by A/C Payee cheque marked MG/KG Project, Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society and mailed to 127 Kingsland Street, Nutley NJ 07110, USA or 38 Auburn Side, Dehiwala, Sri Lanka. All USA donations are Tax Free.
Even the smallest donation will help to save these elephants.
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