Elephant Attacks: 5 deaths in 48 hours

COLOMBO (News 1st) - Human-elephant conflict is one of the biggest environmental and socio-economic crises in rural Sri Lanka, and this is not something new.

Development projects carried out in an ad-hoc manner over the years threatened the habitats of the Wild Elephants.

However, this time around Wild Elephants charge at villages in search of the fresh paddy harvest stored inside the houses.

During such encroachments, five people lost their lives in just two days in rural Sri Lanka.

An 80-year-old woman from Kebithigollewa was killed early this morning following a wild elephant attack when she was heading to town to obtain her Senior Citizen's Benefit.

She was killed at her doorstep, and it was reported that her late husband also died last year in a similar wild elephant attack.

A 56-year-old man was killed by a wild elephant in Kekirawa when he was returning from a swim in a local lake.

Reports said that his eldest son was seriously injured in a wild elephant attack some time back.

It is reported that the Wild Elephants caused serious damage to 10 houses and a school in the Kalu-Ebe village in Kekirawa

The victims' brother alleged that local authorities are not giving any attention to the threats posed by the wild elephants.

A 45-year-old mother of two was killed in a wild elephant attack in the Udagawa area in Kebithigollewa.

She was returning home with her two children after attending her brother's funeral.

Her children were spared in the wild elephant attack.

"I was riding the bicycle with my sister. My mother stopped because there was an elephant on the road. Then it charged after us. I ran. Then I heard the bicycle fall. Then I saw my sister running. My father ran towards my mother. That's all I saw," her son who was spared detailed the horrific incident.

Two similar tragic and unfortunate incidents were reported on Tuesday (27) as well.

Why is it that the responsible authorities have not been able to implement a sustainable solution to the Human Elephant conflict that could have prevented these losses of lives?