GPS technology to address Human-Elephant conflict

The Department of Wildlife Conservation has decided to use  GPS technology to monitor movements of elephants and thereby managing the issue which has reached serious proportions. 

The project which  began in Oyamaduwa, involves fitting GPS collars on wild elephants to track their locations and study their migration routes. This effort aims to better understand elephant movements and mitigate the human-elephant conflict, a persistent issue in many parts of Sri Lanka.  

Wildlife officials, local residents, and the Sri Lanka Navy are collaborating in this initiative. 

According to surveys, wild elephants said to havr  caused crop damage in the country, with incidents reported daily from various regions.  

In response to this growing problem, a program to relocate wild elephants to designated reserves was recently launched in Anuradhapura, a district severely affected by crop damage caused by elephants.