By Maheesha Mudugamuwa In the wake of the Government receiving the Cabinet nod to construct more electric fences to solve human-elephant conflict (HEC), environmentalists urged the Government to reconsider its proposal and to stop wasting public money on short-term solutions. Environmentalists stressed that if the Government neglected the human-elephant conflict without giving a proper solution, Sri Lanka’s elephants would vanish soon. According to statistics, the death toll from HEC has hit a record high with over 375 people killed by wild elephants and over 1,100 elephants killed by humans within the last five years. On Wednesday, the Cabinet approved the proposal presented by the Wildlife and Provincial Development Minister Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka to construct a 2, 652km-long electric fence in areas identified as vulnerable to elephant attacks, especially near national parks and villages, to prevent the elephants entering villages in search of food and water. The proposal also highlighted the need to repair the malfunctioning segments of the fence and connect the inactive sections of the already established 4,349km electric fence. According to Species Conservation Centre Chairman Pubudu Weeraratne, an expert on elephants, the construction of electric fences was only a short-term solution and the Government would have to spend a huge sum of money for the project. The Government would have to spend approximately Rs. 700,000 per kilometre, he added. According to Weeraratne, the conflict had arisen on account of the lack of a National Land Use Policy in Sri Lanka. “The Government should first monitor the National Land Use Policy in a proper manner. Besides, it should make sure that the development projects are determined in a manner which would not damage the livelihood of the species,” he said. According to statistics, more than 60 humans and 206 elephants have died in the last 10 months. Most elephant deaths were reported from the Anuradhapura, Puttalam, and Vavuniya. In addition, elephant deaths were reported from the Mahaweli, Eastern, Yala-Bundala and central regions. President Maithripala Sirisena recently drew attention to the problem presenting a special proposal to the National Sustainable Discourse to obtain all stakeholders' ideas and suggestions on resolving the human-elephant conflict.