Over the past two years, Daham Piyasena has lived through momentous times: the worst economic crisis in Sri Lanka’s history, which led to unprecedented public protests that forced the resignation of the island nation’s president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa.On Sept. 21 this year, Piyasena, a 61-year-old farmer, will be among more than 17 million Sri Lankans looking to write a new chapter in the country’s history when they go to the polls for the first presidential election since 2019.But for Piyasena and his wife, Chandrika, there’s no guarantee of a trouble-free voting day. That’s because their village in the northwestern district of Puttalam is one of many red-alert areas — designated as such because of the high incidence of human-elephant conflict.

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