CEJ officers had preliminary site visits in the proposed area with the intention of identifying the most vulnerable and affected communities and areas by HEC as well as environmental value together with studying community livelihood.  In both districts the team paid several visits to local bureaucrats and also visited village communities.  Site visit was covered on the first day in wildlife regional office in Puttalam and Murukkuwatawana village in Karuwalagaswewa DS division on 24^th June 2020. Day two, 25^th June 2020 was covered in Giribawa district secretariat division, Hettiarachchigama Grama Niadhari division in Giribawa DS division and Kudadodameththewa village in Nawagattegama Divisional Secretariat.   These open discussions with the communities and bureaucrats, held to understand the community livelihood behaviors and elephant behaviors. As a result, the preliminary work on building up an information base and networking was useful.  Through these site visits, CEJ was able to identify suitable locations to conduct the research on human-elephant conflict in Northwestern province.