SriLanka, April 26 -- President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has instructed the Environment Ministry to take immediate action to mitigate the fast growing Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC).

It is learnt that from 2023 to mid April 2026, 1,400 elephant deaths have been reported against 517 human deaths in the conflict. In 2022, the elephant death toll was 422.

According to the Environment Ministry's information, one elephant is killed every day in the country. Despite fluctuations, the number of HEC-caused human deaths has exceeded minimum 100 per year over the past three years resulting in 2,150 human and 5,975 elephant casualties in the past three decades.

Environmental scientists including Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando have indicated that none of...