The Hon. Kins Nelson
Hon. Kins Nelson raised concerns that existing electric fences to prevent human-elephant conflict have not been maintained, with non-functioning batteries, no electricity in guard huts, and overgrown corridors reducing effectiveness. He requested that the Civil Security Department be re-engaged to help maintain fence corridors and that the fences be fully repaired before the upcoming Maha harvest. He warned that otherwise elephant-related damage to crops, stored paddy, homes, and livelihoods would increase despite compensation payments.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Speaker, my second supplementary is this. Electric fences have been erected but not maintained for a long time. Earlier, Civil Security personnel assisted and kept corridors clear so fences functioned properly. For a long period now, the Civil Security Department has not been involved. If re-engaged, it would help. There are guard huts every two kilometres along fences but with no electricity or facilities. Batteries are not working; fences have no current. Please pay special attention to repair and prepare fences before the upcoming harvest, otherwise property damage will increase. Elephants even enter houses to eat stored paddy, destroying homes; while the Government pays compensation, people are left destitute. Please repair the fences fully before the Maha harvest.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Thursday, 6 February 2025 ·No. 1739271735020022 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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Cite as: The Hon. Kins Nelson. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 6 February 2025. No. 1739271735020022. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/665