Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2016-10-18

Improving the living conditions of the people living around Wildlife Zones

- The Cabinet has already granted approval to relocate the families living in the elephant migratory pathways, under three (03) stages. Accordingly, as the first phase, the proposal made by Hon. Gamini Jayawickrema Perera, the Minister of Sustainable Development and Wildlife, to entrust the task of conducting relevant preliminary surveys and community awareness programmes in the three Zones of North-Western, Uva and the Southern, which have been identified by the Department of Wildlife Conservation as the areas in which elephant migratory pathways exist and where human-elephant conflicts are rampant, to the Wildlife Trust, which is an experienced institution in the relevant field and also to get the relevant urgent and priority field activities attended to by the said Trust, was approved by the Cabinet.