Dozens of elephants meet in Sri Lankan landfills.
Wilted vegetables, leftover foods;
the pachyderms spend hours eating in the middle of the rubbish.
A common sight in the three largest landfills in the country, located next to protected areas.
In 2019, 361 of these animals died after ingesting plastic, heavily present in these dumps.
“The wild elephants that come to the landfill hang out here day and night.
Then they go to neighboring villages and harm the villagers, their properties and farmland.
The end result is that the conflict with humans worsens and we lose elephants which are a national asset ”, worries PH Kumara, member of the Gal-oya farmers committee.
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To put an end to the phenomenon, the Sri Lankan government is trying to isolate the huge landfills, by surrounding the dumpsites with impassable trenches for pachyderms.