EleFriendly Bus in Sri Lanka Repairs Funded By AES

Elephants & education go trunk-in-hand - A lot of the work that Asian Elephant Support does surrounds education. From additional training for veterinarians, skill building for mahouts, community awareness programs and funding for safe transportation for children to attend school, AES wants to put the knowledge and resources in the hands of our partners and communities living with elephants in Asia!

In one of our most recently funded projects, AES committed to providing money to the Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society to help service and repair the EleFriendly Bus in Sri Lanka. In 2016, AES was part of a group that helped purchase this bus that made it possible for children to be transported to their school along a route frequented by wild elephants.

Since the start of this bus service to nine villages, which is also used by community members when the children are in class, Human-Elephant Conflict has been reduced by 90% along the corridors it travels. The funding of repairs came just in time for the start of the new school session in January and just in time for us to celebrate the International Day of Education, on January 24th!

Thank you to all of our partners in the field for their continuing work to care for and conserve Asian elephants and support the communities living amongst them. If you would like to support our partners throughout Asia, consider becoming an Monthly Donor. Click here to learn how!

Human-Elephant Conflict Mitigation Workshops

“The current trend of human-elephant conflict in Bhutan is very scary.  This is because it involves two important dimensions – the livelihood of the poor farmer and conservation of the endangered Asian elephants.”

The above quote, submitted by Yeshey Wangdi, Senior Park Ranger, Royal Manas National Park, is in his final report covering the first series of community workshops.   Ranger Wangdi is offering HEC mitigation workshops to communities created by government resettlement in areas that were previously forested elephant corridors and are now experiencing a steadily increasing incidence of human-elephant conflict.  The workshop includes some general biology and behavior of elephants as well as the do’s and don’ts of living with elephants.  Mini dramas were performed to help the people understand more peaceful ways of coexisting with these large and strong pachyderms, and school bags were given to all students and teachers, with their agreement to share the HEC awareness program with their nearby communities.

As Ranger Wangdi so succinctly states, “HEC entails need for strategy that will favorably create win-win for both the parties (people and elephants)”.