COLOMBO — Over the past two years, Daham Piyasena has lived through momentous times: the worst economic crisis in Sri Lanka’s history, which led to unprecedented public protests that forced the resignation of the island nation’s president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa. On Sept. 21 this year, Piyasena, a 61-year-old farmer, will be among more than 17 million Sri Lankans looking to write a new chapter in the country’s history when they go to the polls for the first presidential election since 2019. But for Piyasena and his wife, Chandrika, there’s no guarantee of a trouble-free voting day. That’s because their village in the northwestern district of Puttalam is one of many red-alert areas — designated as such because of the high incidence of human-elephant conflict. “Elections or no elections, people are always watchful,” Piyasena tells Mongabay. “Authorities have tried various solutions in the past five decades including electric fences, but the situation has not improved.” The couple are resigned to the near inevitability of an elephant encounter on the day — or on any other day — and take a practical view: It’s best to vote in the early hours, they say, and not wait until afternoon, when elephants are more likely to be lumbering about and therefore more likely to cross paths with humans. “If a lot of people leave their homes for polling, that’s bonanza time for elephants,” adds Chandrika, 55, of the likelihood of elephant herds raiding their crops undisturbed. Sri Lanka is renowned for its large population of…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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