Current status of Asian Elephants in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka holds an important position with regard to Asian elephant conservation. Well over 10% of the global Asian elephant population in less than 2% of elephant range (Leimgruber et al. 2003), makes Sri Lanka the range country with the highest density of elephants. It also has one of the highest human densities among rangecountries. Therefore successes and failures in Sri Lanka can provide critical insights into mitigating human-elephant conflict (HEC) and conserving elephants. In addition Sri Lankan elephants are recognized as a distinct subspecies. Although genetic support for a sub-specific distinction is low, Sri Lanka has the highest genetic diversity of Asian elephants (Fernando et al. 2000; Fleisher et al. 2001).