Garbage Elephants of Sri Lanka - Barriers FOR Their Survival

Crisis in the Garbage Dumps of Sri Lanka:

The recent death of another garbage dump elephant amplifies the call for a solution. Like most of the other twenty recent deaths in this region alone, the elephant died of a clogged intestine. At least five elephants have now died in the past 6 years at this single garbage dump, located in Pallakkadu village, near Ampara. Credible reports indicate that 20 elephants have died over the last eight years in the region.

A multitude of dumps throughout Sri Lanka face similar casualties of failed fences and barriers. We interviewed Department of Wildlife Conservation Veterinarian Surgeon Dr. Nihal Puspakumar - he has been sounding the alarm for several years about the damage plastics are doing to elephants internal organs, beyond the most obvious intestinal blockages. 

This is a horrible kind of death. Elephants often die of trash-clogged intestines, and others die of parasites and ulcerated stomach and intestinal linings. Most folks would agree that elephants shouldn’t live in a landscape of human waste, for both ethical and health reasons.

Authorities Fail to Take Action

Our research has taken us across the landscape of Sri Lanka, documenting failed and half-hearted attempts at keeping elephants out of garbage dumps. We have documented the truth about ineffective dirt trenches and traditional electric fences, with visual evidence contained within a short film on the subject. Educating the policymakers is frustratingly necessary, as each new unqualified Minister is given the fumbling authority to make uneducated stabs at ending Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC). Enforcement of existing laws (ie: Flora and Fauna Act) regarding garbage dumps and environmental review for hugely impactful actions, like the digging of 20 KMs of dirt trenches, would go far in reducing HEC.

Failed Barriers — Failed Trenches

A most ignorant attempt to keep elephants out Ampara's garbage dump was implemented last year, using a singular trench around the dumps’ perimeter. Incredibly, even as this trench failed - it's being cited as an example of success and is being used as a model for the construction of a 19 km long trench adjacent to Udawalawe National Park, 200 KMs to the South. The poor dead bull elephant seen in our most recent video is proof of this, as is our video of elephants easily passing thru the newly dug trench.

Why Trench Barriers Fail

Trenches are only effective in non-erodible soils or bedrock. We’ve visited numerous failed trenches that have been installed in Sri Lanka, India and elsewhere. Thousands of years of worldwide trial and error have documented the appropriate standards — being antidotally — hardened soil. Professional geologists (this author being one) would question the lack of site-specific studies relating to soil erodibility - the use of indices related to percentage-weight of waterstable aggregates, as example. By applying this contemporary science, little is left to chance when digging a trench. 

Insert Strong Editorial Comment Here: A politician, without substantial review, singly hiring a contractor to bring in huge excavators and dig miles-long ten foot deep trenches near endangered species, cherished National Parks, and hazardous garbage dump locations is heresy. Do folks get the idiocy of these actions? Really? Is this some politicians' sand box?

More Mosquitos, Flooding and Impacts to the Legacy of the Cascade and Tank System 

One must question amateurish lands' management. What of proper trench gradient and resultant pooling of water? Huge investment in mosquito eradication have been undertaken in Sri Lanka, yet mosquito infested waters are being created by these trenching operations. Sri Lanka is world renown for its millennia old cascade and tank irrigation systems - haphazard digging of these trenches affect both the flow of surface and shallow subsurface water (called interflow). Environmental Impact Studies are essential, especially when endangered species and National Parks are involved. 

Suspect Motivation — Local Administrators Giving Contracts to Friends and Family

In Udawalawe, we have witnessed trench soils being hauled far offsite. We have learned that one or more of these long trenches are being self-funded by the contractors who are then permitted to sell the soil resource for profit. We have learned that equipment is being used to separate sand from the excavated soil. Sand being of great value. We have observed the removal of the easily excavated soil, while leaving difficult portions of the trench un-dug. These un-dug portions include boulders and tree stumps, that obviously impede the maximization of soil removal, haulage and sale. These obstructions, when left in place, result in failure of the entire purpose of the trench to begin with! These trenches were ineffectual from the beginning! Further, when soils are displaced afar, they will not be available for later backfilling when these trenches inevitably fail.

Trenches Must Be Concrete Lined

In Sri Lanka's predominant soil type, trenches and canals must be concrete lined, otherwise they fail by any of various means — by flooding, sloughing, or as easily as an elephant collapsing the sidewalls with their tusks (mostly in India and Africa), or by foot stomping. At the Ampara landfill, the elephant ironically made ramps out of the garbage waste itself. 

Dirt Trenches Need An Adjacent Hanging Wire Fence to Be Successful

We have found only one successful trench in Sri Lanka, and this is at Anapallama Garbage Dump. However, the trench actually failed here too — it's only effective because the trench is combined with a hanging wire fence (see associated video). It can be argued that the hanging wire fence alone would deter elephant encroachment.

Hanging Wire Fences

Hanging wire fences are best, and when combined with a traditional horizontal electric wire fence is the most effective and inexpensive barrier system known.

The Hambanthota garbage dump dues not have a trench, and no longer has an elephant problem. It includes combined hanging wire, with a traditional horizontal wire fence. Hambanthota garbage dump had a huge elephant problem until the hanging wire fence was installed.

Tuskers and Magnificent Bull Elephants are Dying

We must keep elephants out of the dumps, as too many critically important bull elephants are dying, and it's been estimated that a full quarter of Sri Lanka's remaining tuskers may be visiting these locations.

Garbage Dumps are Breeding Grounds For Crop Raiding Elephants

Dr. Puspakumar states that these garbage dumps are like training grounds for crop raiding elephants. After becoming habituated to human food, the elephants are then more likely to pursue high protein grains and fruits in nearby villages and cultivations. This accentuates human/elephant (HEC) conflict. 

Connecting the Dots — Elephants' Habituation to Human Food; "Beggers By Day, Crop Raiders By Night"

Interestingly, we have found that the begging elephants being fed by tourists along the southern boundary at Udawalawe National Park during daytime are also the ones that break the park's electric fence at night — raiding adjacent cultivations. Again, this links the elephants' habituation and preference for human food, with their roguish behavior and elevated HEC cases. Not coincidentally, due to increasing HEC in the area, a trench is now being dug along Udawalawe's southern boundary. A strong case can be made that tourist's feeding human food to wild elephants is the cause of increased HEC, like how the garbage dumps are the root cause for greater crop and village raiding in those particular areas. 

How to Reduce Human/Elephant Conflict 

The goal is to reduce HEC. We can do this by keeping elephants out of garbage dumps, and stopping the tourists from feeding wild elephants. Hanging wire fences, possibly in tandem with horizontal wire fencing, will accomplish these goals. Being denied garbage waste, and tourist handouts, elephants will need to replace this essential protein. 

Alternative food sources is essential and can be accomplished by redoubling efforts to clear invasive plants from parklands — only NGOs are funding weed removal crews. There must be a more concerted effort by the central government to fund these activities.  Due to illegal squatters recently encroaching upon long established elephant corridors and forest lands, the elephants are unable to travel between forest reserves and parks. Forest areas must be better protected, and squatters removed. Sri Lanka must make the survival of the elephant a national priority and protect elephant range areas as "Elephant Reserves," without regard to statutory Forest, Park of DWC designation. 

While there may be a short term increase of crop raiding from those elephants denied access to garbage dumps, the most susceptible villages can be protected by quickened installation of hanging wire fences along their perimeter. As always, farmers can be compensated for crop losses.