Sri Lanka to conduct elephant census after 10 years

Colombo, Jan 25 Sri Lanka's Department of Wildlife Conservation will conduct an island-wide elephant census this year after ...

Colombo, Jan 25 Sri Lanka's Department of Wildlife Conservation will conduct an island-wide elephant census this year after a decade to determine the exact number of the animals in the country, local media reported on Monday.

Secretary to the Ministry of Wildlife Conservation Bandula Harischandra said an elephant census was last conducted in 2011 and it was estimated that Sri Lanka had 5,179 tuskers, reports Xinhua news agency.

Sri Lanka last year recorded the highest annual elephant deaths and second-highest human fatalities in the world due to the human-elephant conflict, according to Sri Lanka's Committee on Public Accounts (COPA).