Due to the increase in the water level in Kalawawa during the dry season, more than 300 elephants came to the Kalawewa in search of food from the nearby reserves and attacked the villages during the night. The elephant tried to block the main road and jumped on the vehicles and people traveling on the road, as a result of which the traffic on the road was stopped for almost an hour.
Kalawewa National Park is an excellent national park in Sri Lanka for elephant viewing. As soon as the dry season comes, people from several areas like Galgamawa, Tirappane, Habarana, Ritigala, and Galenbidunuwewa come to the Kalawewa Natural Park to eat the light grass that grows at the very bottom of the lake.
Even now, more than 300 wild elephants have migrated to the small forest areas in several areas near the park due to the rising water level in the region and a very high percentage of the land in the Nida National Park has been submerged.
As a result, due to the search for food from the nearby villages of Awa Ali, the crops and houses of Janathas in the surrounding villages are being severely damaged.
Also on these days, the largest remaining elephant in Kalawewa also comes and roams around the villages with these herds.
Since several years, the water level in the region has been lowered by the Irrigation Department, and the largest elephants in the region, such as Revata and Barana, have died by getting tangled in unprotected power lines after reaching villages in search of food.
Environmentalists say that the wild elephants and buffaloes that come near the park these days are also in serious danger.