TBWA\Sri Lanka Creates Elephant Repellent Incense Sticks for Aura

Human-Elephant conflict is a significant concern across Sri Lanka, claiming approximately 70 human lives and 300 Elephant lives per year, in addition to thousands of homes and crops being destroyed.

In an effort to mitigate this ongoing issue, TBWA\Sri Lanka, in partnership with Aura incense, and in collaboration with the Wildlife Department of Sri Lanka, launched the Aura ‘Aliya’ (meaning Elephant) incense stick, designed to repel elephants. The product was tested over a three-year period and recently launched in market.

Renuka Marshall, managing director TBWA\Sri Lanka: “The solution to create an invisible barricade with the ‘Aliya’ incense stick was a result of understanding of the behavioural routines of the villagers and elephants.

“The villagers pray early in the morning and in the evenings, with incense sticks, hoping for a peaceful existence. It was found this was also the time the elephants travelled into the village. With elephants having a very high sense of smell, the opportunity to create a product that fitted into the villager’s daily lives made absolute sense.”

The ‘Aliya’ incense stick is a result of combining five non-toxic, natural elephant repelling ingredients – ginger, lemon grass, citronella, palma rosa and patchouli. With traditional pray sticks burning between 30-90 minutes, the ‘Aliya’ will burn up to 5 1⁄2 hours and designed to emit fragrance parallel to the ground for a minimum radius of 20 meters. Elephants sense the fragrance from afar and maintain a safe distance from the village.

Renuka Marshall concluded: “These efforts continue to keep both elephants and humans separate and safe, something we’re all very proud of.”