The Hon. (Dr.) Dammika Patabendi – Minister of Environment

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, the reply to Hon. Chamara Sampath Dasanayake:

¶ 02 (a) i. Yes. A national elephant census was completed in 2024. It found a minimum of 7,451 wild elephants in Sri Lanka. The previous census was in 2011, which reported a minimum of 5,879. Thus, between 2011 and 2024 the population increased by 1,572 or 26.7%. The proportion of tuskers (bulls with tusks) rose from 8.4% in 2011 to 17.6% in 2024, an increase of 9.2 percentage points. The overall proportion of male elephants was 6% in 2011 and 6.5% in 2024.

¶ 03 Hon. Presiding Member, the Hon. Member referred to global status. The Asian elephant is threatened with extinction. About 60% of Asian elephants live in India. India’s latest census report (issued around November 2025) records 22,446 elephants; in 2017 India reported 29,964. That is a 25% decline (7,518 fewer) over eight years. In contrast, Sri Lanka’s population increased by 26.7% from 2011 to 2024.

¶ 04 The Member stated that the highest elephant deaths occurred in 2025. That is incorrect. The highest recorded was in 2023 with 488 deaths. In 2024 it fell to 388. In 2025 it rose to 409, due to intensifying human-elephant conflict, train collisions, and impacts of Cyclone Ditta. Around 44% of elephant deaths are due to human activities: 76 by gunshot, 62 by electrocution, 53 by hakka patas, and two by poisoning.

¶ 05 Regarding mitigation, previous governments failed to act adequately. Since the National People’s Power Government took office, we have intervened decisively. We identified longstanding wrong political culture and policies that deprived elephants of habitat and forage.

¶ 06 The Department of Wildlife Conservation is the lead agency, but historically lacked adequate human and physical resources. In 2025 we recruited 3,551 fence assistants and 5,000 Civil Security personnel; approvals have been obtained to recruit 569 officers to fill cadre gaps. We increased allowances to motivate staff. We also provided physical resources: 100 cabs, 181 motorcycles, and tractors and hand-tractors with budgetary allocations.

¶ 07 To reduce train collisions, the Transport Ministry and Environment Ministry worked together: imposed speed limits, deployed locomotives with better visibility on critical stretches, adjusted timetables, cleared vegetation along rail tracks for line-of-sight, trained locomotive drivers on elephant behavior, and introduced modern technologies.

¶ 08 In Budget 2026 and this year, we allocated Rs. 8.55 billion for environmental conservation, Rs. 6.4 billion for wildlife conservation including elephants, and Rs. 1 billion for behavior modification measures. This Government has intervened more than any other to resolve the human-elephant conflict, aiming to protect elephants while safeguarding human lives and property. The impacts extend beyond tourism to livelihoods and agriculture; we will act nationally to rebuild all affected sectors.

¶ 09 Thank you.