In Sri Lanka … electric barriers to protect elephants from eating plastic

The Sri Lankan government announced that it had started to install electric barriers to protect elephants from the dangers of eating plastic from landfills, in order to protect these animals from the risk of death.

Since eating plastic is one of the leading causes of elephant death in Sri Lanka, autopsies showed the presence of large amounts of plastic waste in the guts of these animals after searching for food in landfills.

The Wildlife Conservation Authority noted that the number of waste dumps has decreased from 54 to 15 since 2017, but the problem still exists at nine sites.

The authority said: “We have started work on two landfills in Amarbara province and we hope to complete them early next year.”

Authorities will erect sloping barriers approximately two meters deep to protect the elephants.

Sri Lanka announced in August that it was preparing a law that bans the importation of most plastic products that end up in landfills, and single-use plastic products will be banned from January.

Sri Lanka has also banned since 2017 the manufacture or import of non-degradable organic plastic intended for food packaging or plastic bags.