As a new wave of large-scale solar energy projects take shape along the fringes of Sri Lanka’s Managed Elephant Range, or MER, in the southern district of Hambantota, activists, farmers and wildlife conservationists are opposing the move.

Those opposing the solar push — in a district that has significant ‘elephant terrain’ — warn that clearing forests in one of the most critical elephant landscapes on the island would escalate the existing human-elephant conflict (HEC) rather than reduce it.

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