MATALE — Farmers in Sri Lanka's Matale district are chasing wild elephants from their paddy fields at night using flashing torches and firecrackers, as encounters between humans and elephants have risen across the country. Sri Lanka's wildlife conservation authority recorded 488 elephants killed in 2023, up from 255 in 2011, while elephant attacks on farmers rose to 188 from 60 over the same period.

Sri Lanka has about 7,400 Asian elephants that roam freely, most of them living near farms and settlements. The government has converted traditional elephant grazing areas into farmland, and improved irrigation over the past few decades has allowed farmers to cultivate multiple crops per year on land that once lay fallow between rainy seasons.

"Obviously, it's war," said Gunasinghe Kapuga, a farmer in the Matale district. "More elephants will die or more farmers will die," he said.

Kapuga also described a recent encounter in which an elephant entered a paddy field. "He fearlessly chased the elephant away, he ran after it with a flashing torch and threw firecrackers at it. Some elephants turn around — and attack. It's a really dangerous task," he said.

Although killing elephants is illegal in Sri Lanka, the animals are killed using gunshots, electrocution, and bombs concealed in food that shatter their jaws, causing starvation. Elephants have also killed farmers during field raids.

"It's sort of an arms race," said Prithiviraj Fernando, chairman of the Center for Conservation and Research. According to Fernando, elephants adapt to firecrackers and torches, and farmers have begun shooting the animals.

The Sri Lankan government has deployed elephant drives using firecrackers, gunfire, and drones to corral elephants into national parks surrounded by electric fences. Elephants learn which parts of the fences do not carry current, such as the wooden posts supporting the wires.

"They are coming toward villages, because inside forest areas, the elephant density [is] already saturated," said Manjula Amararathna, senior director of the department of wildlife conservation. Thousands of farmers in central Sri Lanka use treehouses to guard their fields against elephant raids after dark.

Elephants have long been revered by Buddhist and Hindu communities in Sri Lanka. Most of the country's roughly 7,400 Asian elephants live near farms and settlements, where traditional grazing areas have been converted to farmland.