Now, as a drastic measure, arms have been given to the civilians and some of them are using them to kill elephants. War and deforestation have forced the elephants to come to the human habitat in search of food and this is causing all the trouble. Reuters report:
In what the military says is a bid to protect villages in the far north as the government and its Tiger foes wage a new phase of a 25-year civil war, farmers have been given shotguns and a civil defense force semi-automatic weapons for protection.
But the plan has backfired. The recipients are turning them increasingly on pachyderms who stray onto their crops or damage their homes in search of food -- with elephant deaths up 13 percent in 2007 from a year earlier.
"They are shooting my animals," Weerasingha lamented on a visit to this remote village on the periphery of
Last year, 193 elephants were killed which was 171 in 2006. On the contrary, forty nine men and one woman were killed by the elephants in 2007. The north eastern district of Sri Lanka is home to over one thousand elephants out of which 63 were killed including 27 by gunshot. Aside from gunfire, poisoned fruits, electric wires also cause death to the elephants.
Villagers
According to Army Commander Sarath Fonseka, increasing supervision is the only way to solve this problem. The army has given strict instructions to the villagers not to use weapons to kill animals.
Now days, it is very common to see a tourist getting off their vehicles and taking pictures of elephants in Sri Lanka. Elephants do not mean any threat to people. They are only trying to survive. At this stage, the government should take necessary steps for creating alternative places for the elephants where they can get ample amount of foods. At the same time, awareness among people has to be raised so that they do not kill elephants when they can easily drive them away.
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