COLOMBO, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) said on Monday that it had initiated a program to fit GPS collars on wild elephants in a bid to minimize the escalating human-elephant conflict prevailing across the island country.

The department quoted by local media reports as saying that Sri Lanka had recorded a high number of elephant deaths due to the human-elephant conflict in the past two years and environmentalists had raised serious concerns.

Under the direction of DWC Director General M.G.C Sooriyabandara, it had immediately initiated the program to fit GPS collars on wild elephants in the Uva Province which was one of the worst areas affected by the human elephant conflict, it said.

The GPS collars were fixed under the supervision of wildlife officials.

The program would soon be implemented in other parts of the island.

The government said the death toll from Sri Lanka's human-elephant conflict hit a record high with over 375 people killed by wild elephants and over 1,100 elephants killed by humans within the last five years.

Official records show the population of wild elephants in Sri Lanka is estimated at 7,500.