Millions spent on electric fence, but human-elephant conflict unresolved, COPA told

March 27, 2021 06:33 pm

Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) was told on Friday that the human-elephant conflict remains unresolved although Rs. 490 million was spent on setting up an electric fence from 2019 to 2020.

A meeting of COPA, headed by its Chairman Prof. Tissa Vitharana, was held at the Parliament Complex.

As per the revelations made at the COPA meeting, Rs. 275,447,639 was spent in 2019 to construct an electric fence in order to resolve the conflict. In 2020, the amount spent on this purpose stood at Rs. 221,505,818.

Reportedly, the total length of the electric fence set up at the said cost is 4,756km.

However, due to the prolonged human-elephant conflict, 28 human deaths and 83 elephants had been recorded in Sri Lanka as of March 23, 2021.

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