The spread of rice monocultures, the decline of agricultural techniques such as shifting cultivation (Panapitiya 2010: 19), and deforestation for paddy expansion are a great concern to both humans and wildlife and have aggravated conflicts. Particularly during water shortages, elephants come to villages to seek water and rampage paddy fields. Rampaging elephants are often hunted down which has decreased the elephant population in Sri Lanka heavily in recent times and is widely criticized by wildlife conservationists (Panapitiya 2010: 17; Panabokke et al. 2002: 59). Human-wildlife conflict negatively influences the physical capital of both humans and animals in the Dry Zone, because elephant aggression poses a real danger to human safety while decreasing forests force the elephants into settlements where humans are a danger to elephants as well. In the researched village, the villagers did not leave their houses at night because there could be elephants roaming the area and various interview partners reported incidents that have led to fatalities with elephants in neighbouring villages.