{"id":55258,"date":"2020-12-29T11:40:49","date_gmt":"2020-12-29T11:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/?p=55258"},"modified":"2020-12-29T11:40:49","modified_gmt":"2020-12-29T11:40:49","slug":"the-economic-value-of-elephants-in-sri-lanka-for-tourism-by-srilal-miththapala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/the-economic-value-of-elephants-in-sri-lanka-for-tourism-by-srilal-miththapala\/","title":{"rendered":"The economic value of elephants in Sri Lanka for tourism-by Srilal Miththapala"},"content":{"rendered":"

The economic value of elephants in Sri Lanka for tourism-by Srilal Miththapala<\/span><\/h1>\n

\"elephants<\/p>\n

It is estimated that there are some 6,000 wild elephants in Sri Lanka today. This then means that there is a treasure worth more than Rs. 23.4 billion ($ 128 m) out in the wild<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Source:<\/span><\/strong><\/span>FT<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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From time immemorial, travellers of days gone by and modern-day tourists have been fascinated by Sri Lanka\u2019s elephants. Today, wildlife, and elephants in particular, is a major component of Sri Lanka tourism\u2019s product portfolio.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately at the same time, due to haphazard and unplanned development, encroaching into hitherto elephant habitats, there are widespread altercations between man and elephant, resulting in large numbers of elephants dying. Today Sri Lanka has earned the dubious \u2018honour\u2019 of being rated as the country with the highest number of elephant deaths in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this analysis I attempt to evaluate the economic benefits of an elephant for tourism, using some reasonable and research based assumptions, which may open the eyes of the administrators to holistically and seriously look into this major issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The elephant in Sri Lanka and tourism\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The world\u2019s largest living land animal\u2019s sheer majesty, size, and calm but latently powerful demeanour, is awe-inspiring. Elephants have always fascinated visitors to Sri Lanka, which boasts of one of the largest populations of wild elephants in Asia.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u2018Gathering\u2019 of Elephants every year on the banks of the Minneriya-Kaudulla reservoirs is now world famous. Just 3.5 hours\u2019 drive from the city of Colombo one is assured of sighting wild elephants at the Uda Walawe National Park (UWNP) all year round. So elephants and tourism are closely linked. In fact the number of tourists visiting national parks in Sri Lanka has risen from 20% of all tourists visiting the country in 2015, to 47% in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Human-Elephant Conflict\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Due to unplanned development, encroachment into national park buffer zones over the years, and with no cohesive mitigation plan in place, the human elephant conflict has now reached serious proportions. Deaths of wild elephants at the hands of villagers has been steadily increasing, and last year it topped 400. This means that a wild elephant dies every day. At the same time some 80-90 humans also lose their lives due altercations with wild elephants.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is indeed a very grim and sad situation, which has led Sri Lanka recently to earn the dubious \u2018honour\u2019 of being rated as country with the highest number of elephant deaths in the world. While this indeed disastrous to Sri Lanka as a country , to keep losing one if its greatest and most charismatic species, will have a slow, but long term effect on tourism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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So for a moment I thought I would put aside my \u2018environmental and wild life\u2019 cap, and study this problem from an economic angle (actually this idea was suggested to me by my friend Sanath Ukwatte, the President of the Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka).<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCalculation of economic value of elephants in Sri Lanka for tourism<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n