Tree Hut Program

The main problem about having elephants outside protected areas is that they come into conflict with people. Crop depredation by elephants, damage to property, loss of life and limb, loss of farming opportunities, fear of having to contend with elephants are some of the issues that people who share habitat with elephants have to deal with on a daily basis. Thus, they incur a considerable cost in sharing habitat with elephants and almost without exception they receive zero benefit from it. Consequently, people do not want to share habitat with elephants and want elephants removed from their areas. Attempts to do so and also conserve the elephants have largely failed and may actually be detrimental to elephant conservation. Read more on human elephant conflict...

Our research has shown that if we are to conserve elephants, they need to continue ranging in outside areas. Therefore, we have to find ways and means that will change the opinion of people about living with elephants. While we are working hard to develop management strategies that will reduce or minimize the cost incurred by people through conflict with elephants, another essential part of the equation is to bring them tangible economic benefits from sharing habitat with elephants. Find out more about our new management strategy...

For this purpose we are developing a community run elephant viewing based tourism project. This is part of our management plan for elephants outside protected areas and linked with chena or slash-and-burn cultivation. Find out more about chena...

The idea is that chena farmers can derive economic benefit from tourists coming to see elephants in their fields during the dry season, when the fields are fallow and elephants use them extensively. As a pilot project we are developing tree huts at a couple of tanks or small fresh water reservoirs in the Yala buffer zone, where you can go and watch for elephants. While waiting for elephants, you can see long toed Jacanas traipsing on water lilies, flocks of alexandrine and rose ringed parakeets come and sip water at the edge of the tank, the pied kingfisher hovering in one spot to plunge in and emerge with a little fish... and a host of other birds and animals.

To run the tree hut we will train a group of youngsters from a village in the buffer zone area. They will accompany tourists and explain what happens. We have currently built one tree house at Divulpotana and are looking for funds to further develop this project.

House in chena damaged by an elephant

View from the tree hut

Waiting for the elephants