Stronger laws have been introduced in Sri Lanka to protect wild elephants. Investigators have been looking into the poisoning of seven elephants over the weekend to see if villagers are culpable. In 2019, 293 elephants were deliberately killed compared to 319 last year. These may be retaliation killings as 93 villagers have been killed by wild elephants straying into villages from wildlife reserves.
Comment: another example of human-to-wildlife conflict which is present in many parts of Asia. It is due to human population growth which must lead to wildlife decline over the long term.
