At the meeting of the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) in Parliament it came to light that though Rs. 490 million had been spent on electric fences in 2019 and 2020 to prevent human-elephant conflict, the conflict has not yet been resolved.
The meeting was chaired by MP Prof. Tissa Vitharana. He said that the cost of constructing electric fences in 2019 to prevent human-elephant conflict was Rs. 275,447,639 and the amount spent last year was Rs. 221,505,818. The total length of the electric fence constructed at this cost was 4,756 km.
However, as of March 23, 2021, 28 human deaths and 83 elephant deaths have been reported.
State Ministers Dayasiri Jayasekara, Lasantha Alagiyawanna, Prasanna Ranaweera, Members of Parliament Tissa Attanayake, Niroshan Perera, Mohamed Muzammil, S. Sridharan, Dr. Upul Galappaththi, B.Y.G. Ratnasekera, Weerasumana Weerasinghe, Dr. Harini Amarasuriya and a group of government officials were present.