Elephant Vs. Man

CNN Chief International Security Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh takes an inside look at the fatal conflict playing out between elephants and mankind in Sri Lanka. 

In Sri Lanka, it's an all-out war between man and the Asian elephant. As the human population surges and their territories expand, the habitats for elephants are rapidly shrinking, leading to daily confrontations between the people who are trying to protect their homes, and the elephants who are losing theirs. Paton Walsh embeds with locals on overnight patrols who risk their lives to protect their crops from being trampled and villages from being charged by elephants during the night.

"This is not just a story about us taking away the spaces and greenery elephants have existed upon for centuries: be in no doubt, we are forcing them into tinier spaces so we can have more and more for ourselves, all the time, in the name of growth. It is a story about every fight for space happening on the planet now," said Paton Walsh. "Wars, migration, land disputes – they are all a symptom of our species' ravenous need to expand. In Sri Lanka, it is visually writ large. Elephants and people do not naturally interact, but here they scrap over a pumpkin. This conflict, which kills hundreds on both sides every year, is just a very vivid way of seeing the impact of our greed on the natural world that sustains us."

There are about 6,000 elephants in Sri Lanka and in 2023 humans killed 476 of them; elephants killed 169 people. As both elephants and people continue to die at an alarming rate, this violent struggle may be an ominous sign of what's in store for other wildlife across the globe impacted by climate change and human expansion.