As farmland replaces wild habitat across Asia, elephants and people increasingly collide. In Sri Lanka, one park offers a glimpse of the alternative.

The story

NPR reported this week from Hurulu Eco Park in Sri Lanka, describing it as a place where elephants can graze undisturbed at a time of increasing conflict between elephants and humans, as elephant habitat is converted to intensive agriculture.

Why elephants and farms collide

Elephants need enormous areas to feed and follow traditional routes across the landscape, often the same ones for generations. When those routes are turned into fields, the animals do not disappear — they walk through the crops. A herd can flatten a family’s harvest in a night, and confrontations that follow can be deadly for both people and elephants.

What actually helps

Conservationists generally point to a mix: protected areas large enough to matter, corridors linking them so herds can move without crossing villages, compensation schemes so farmers are not ruined by a single night, and early-warning systems that tell communities when a herd is approaching. Fences alone rarely solve it — elephants are clever and persistent.

Source: NPR, August 6, 2026.