Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2016-03-16

Establishment of the Wildlife Management Units

- Sri Lanka looses more than 50 human lives and 200 wild elephants annually, due to the elephant-human conflict and a trend is developing where in addition to elephants, other animals such as leopards, crocodiles and monkeys have conflicts with humans. As such, in order to control this situation, plans are being launched by the Department of Wildlife Conservation, and therefore, the proposal made by Hon. Gamini Jayawickrema Perera, the Minister of Sustainable Development and Wildlife, to establish Wildlife Management Units covering the wildlife areas where wildlife-human conflicts are mostly reported, to take prompt measures by visiting relevant places immediately, when a such incident is reported, was approved by the Cabinet in principle.