Saturday, March 18, 2006, 12:25 GMT, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka. It is estimated that about 2500-3000 elephants are still found in the wild.

Mar 18, Colombo: Ten wild Sri Lankan elephants (Elephas maximus maximus) have died in the Polonnaruwa district alone within the last two months.

Five of them were gunned down by people, as revealed in post mortems. Three died of electrocution by electric fences erected to prevent elephants from entering villages. One young elephant fell into a well and died.

Another she elephant, suffering from a gun shot injury for several months, died this week near the Wilpattu sanctuary in the Puttalam district, another part of the country. In another elephant-man conflict in Elahera in the Central Province, an 11-year-old boy was killed by an elephant that wandered into a village.

Although there is no accurate census available, it is estimated that about 2500-3000 elephants are still found in the wild, and a further 500 are in captivity. Around 1900, more than 10,000 elephants were found all over the island. But these numbers rapidly fell, firstly due to big game hunting, and subsequently because of rapid development and deforestation, which in turn increased the conflict between man and elephant.

Sri Lankan Daily News and Reports