Sri Lanka began counting its elephants in the wild in an island-wide census on Saturday (17) with a focus on conservation efforts.
The census is being conducted by the Department of Wildlife Conservation after a hiatus of 13 years.
The last elephant census in 2011 showed that there were 5,879 wild elephants in Sri Lanka.
Since then Sri Lanka has lost many elephants due to gun shot wounds, electrocution and being struck by trains. Government data show that the highest number of tuskers have been killed in the Anuradhapura District.
1,310 officers will be involved in the Anuradhapura Wildlife Zone for the census, Deputy Commissioner of Wildlife in charge of Anuradhapura Zone Keerthy Chandraratne was quoted in a government statement.
Officers will be placed in forests and near water bodies where elephants hang out. 3,130 survey centers have been established across the country for the census. The counting ends on August 19.
The island has seen an increase in the human-elephant conflict with the extent of elephants’ habitats on the decline due to expansion of commercial construction and farming.
