Impact of human – Elephant conflict on livelihood A case study from a rural setting of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Impact of wild animals on livelihood of rural population in Sri Lanka takes a higher value. Wild elephants cause maximum damage to rural livelihood in Sri Lanka compared to other wild animals. A huge impact towards to human – elephant co-existence started in mid century. When the dry zone forests became human settlements elephants lost their habitat. It became a common feature for elephants who lost their habitat to come to villages. During last five decades, the populations in Sri Lanka increased by three folds while forests were reduced by half of its original status. The most limiting factor was the congregation of elephants due to division of forests into small plots. People started using even elephant corridors. In this Research attention is been drawn to if there is any similarity or disparity in the in vade of wild elephants, and if there is any difference in the number during different various stages of the harvest. Impact of Wild elephants towards rural livelihood need to be considered, there is a very less possibility to prevent damages caused to crops. Attention was paid to issues created in connection to the damages which are not belong to the agricultural category caused by wild elephants. House and property damages, threats posed to human lives, mental sufferings of the farmers are some issues among them. Similarly, attention was paid to the human threats to the survival of wild animals. Keywords: Wild animals