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

¶ 01 Madam Presiding Member, thank you for this opportunity.

¶ 02 I thank Hon. Rohini Kumari Wijerathna for bringing this motion. The Environment Ministry has responsibilities regarding elephants from multiple angles: protecting wild elephants, and matters relating to captive elephants. Thus, we intervene on several fronts.

¶ 03 While the conflict concerns wild elephants, issues also arose around captive elephants due to erroneous past Cabinet decisions, affecting cultural processions especially after May, when elephants are needed for peraheras in the Buddhist tradition. We have suspended certain wrong decisions of previous governments and appointed a committee to address issues in obtaining captive elephants for cultural activities.

¶ 04 On wild elephant conservation: the Asian elephant is endangered; conservation is vital and also important for tourism earnings. We aim to enhance research and to develop the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage as a breeding and research centre.

¶ 05 Human-elephant conflict has a long history, intensified by past political culture and unplanned development which destroyed habitats, nutrition zones and corridors, leading to deaths of protected elephants and vulnerable humans. Over the last one and a half years, we have taken planned, step-by-step actions.

¶ 06 Key issues we identified include a weak Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) due to historic underinvestment in human and physical resources, including during 2015-2020. Our government has begun to strengthen capacity: recruiting 149 wildlife rangers, 381 wildlife guards, engaging about 3,500 electric fence assistants and around 5,000 Civil Security personnel. We are also augmenting assets: 84 single-cab vehicles, 16 double-cabs, nine 4-wheel tractors, two 2-wheel tractors and 181 motorcycles.

¶ 07 We are heavily engaged in rehabilitating elephant fences. Sri Lanka has about 5,747 km of elephant fences, and we are repairing them. We have also established district-level coordination committees in all affected districts, linking DWC with local authorities and administrative offices to address location-specific problems.

¶ 08 We are creating elephant nutrition zones. Under the Clean Sri Lanka programme, we initiated such zones near Kala Wewa and Thabbowa sanctuaries. We are working to legally declare identified corridors, including the Polonnaruwa–Batticaloa corridor; however, some Batticaloa district MPs have opposed freeing those lands, while Polonnaruwa has granted approval. I request support to free those areas.

¶ 09 In the last year and a half, we have declared 81 new forest reserves covering over 157,000 hectares, including elephant ranging forests and corridor areas. The Hambantota Elephant Management Reserve lacked necessary regulations; on 30 January 2026 we issued the Gazette bringing it into operation.

¶ 10 A 2020 action plan prepared with experts such as Dr. Prithiviraj Fernando was not given legal effect by previous governments and is now outdated. We are updating it through a committee of experts and will implement the revised plan.

¶ 11 To Hon. Archchuna: required fences have been erected in needed areas of the North; forest cover is high there and conflict incidence is relatively low.

¶ 12 Finally, to Hon. Kavirathna: you supported increasing estate workers’ wages to Rs. 1,000, but when we increased it to Rs. 1,750, you complained to the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption. While your motion today is commendable, we seek assurance you will not similarly obstruct the implementation of these measures. We request support from the Opposition to make this programme a success. Thank you.