Sri Lanka to conduct countrywide wild elephant census

Colombo: Sri Lanka's Department of Wildlife Conservation will conduct a countrywide census on wild elephants on August 17, 18, and 19, the state media reported on Saturday.

Director General of the Wildlife Conservation Department Chandana Sooriyabandara said 3,130 survey centres have been established for the census, Xinhua news agency reported.

Staff of the Department of Wildlife Conservation and other government agencies, members of the security forces, employees of various institutions in the private sector, students of higher education institutions, and voluntary participants will take part in the census, he said.

The main objectives of the census are establishing new protected areas for elephants, improving the existing protected areas, preparing and updating strategic plans to curb the elephant-human conflict, and establishing the balance between development activities and conservation needs, he said.

The countrywide census of the elephant population in 2011 estimated that the minimum number of elephants in Sri Lanka was 5,879, state media reported.

According to state media, 55.09 per cent of that population were adult elephants, 25.03 per cent were young elephants, 12.04 per cent were calves, and 6.04 per cent were infants.