Africa, which has more elephants than Asia, was better at dealing with the "human-elephant conflict," Jayantha Jayewardene, head of the Biodiversity and Elephant Conservation Trust, said.

Thirteen researchers and conservationists from Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal and Sri Lanka will make the trip to Kenya.

Hundreds of elephants meet violent deaths at the hands of rural farmers in Asia as they compete for land. The expansion of villages has shrunk elephant habitats, placing both animals and farmers at risk.

In Sri Lanka each year, at least 100 elephants are killed while marauding elephants raiding villages kill some 50 to 60 people.

Jayewardene said elephant research and conservation was far ahead in Africa because funding is better focused in the region where there are more than 600,000 elephants in the wild in 32 countries.

In contrast, the Asian population is confined to 13 countries where the combined wild elephant population is estimated at 40,000 to 45,000.

"This tour would be a tremendous experience and would give a great boost to the countries from where the participants come and to the conservation of the Asian elephant," Jayewardene said.

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