COLOMBO - Sri Lanka has deployed over 4,700 Civil Security Force personnel to safeguard electric fences established to mitigate human-elephant conflict, Minister of Environment Dammika Patabendi told the parliament on Thursday.

The minister said that from 2015 to 2024, successive governments have spent 906 million rupees (approximately $3.1 million) on constructing elephant fences. During this period, 5,612 km of electric fences have been built.

Over the past decade, 3,477 wild elephants and 1,190 people lost their lives due to human-elephant conflicts, while electric fences remain a key measure in controlling this crisis, he added.

According to Patabendi, 43 elephants and three people died last month as a result of such conflicts.