What The Elephant Knows | Ep 7 – Sri Lanka

Making PeaceIn rural Sri Lanka, families and conservationists face deadly human-elephant conflict, seeking a fragile path to co-existence.

Sri Lanka is one of the only countries where humans and elephants share nearly half the land, turning everyday life into a fragile negotiation. As farmland expands into ancient elephant routes, this co-existence has become increasingly violent: families lose crops, homes, and loved ones, while elephants face escalating aggression and hundreds of deaths each year.

Through the story of Nishanti and her children – still grieving the death of their husband and father- and the paddy farmers who guard their fields night after night, this episode immerses us in the daily reality of communities living under constant fear. Their experiences reveal a cycle of retaliation in which both sides suffer, yet only humans have a voice to express their pain.

Conservationist Pruthu offers a path forward, exposing how current solutions like translocation only shift the problem, and arguing that real change begins with understanding the elephants’ behaviour and needs. As educators work with the younger generation to reshape attitudes, a fragile hope emerges that Sri Lanka can transform a deadly conflict into a model of coexistence before its elephants disappear forever.

A film by Fatima Lianes

Published On 24 Jun 2026