Farmers in Walsapugala staged a 108-day long protest back in 2021 braving various threats and challenges urging the then government to implement the Managed Elephant Reserve (MER) which allocated some 23,000 hectares to elephants that roam the area. The MER in fact is an important elephant corridor that connected three main national parks including Bundala, Lunugamvehera and Uda Walawa. Even though the MER has now been gazetted in response to the demands made by farmers, they continue to be at the receiving end of an aggravating Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC).
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