Thursday, 05 December 2024
Thursday, 05 December 2024
India is a country blessed with amazing biodiversity; for a country that is struggling to lift large numbers of people from poverty, that comes with a price tag – man-animal conflict.
Elephant attacks killed 2,853 people in India from 2019 to November 2024. Of this, 614 died in Odisha. During this period, tiger attacks killed 395 humans. Of this, 220 or over half were from Maharashtra.
Human deaths because of elephant attacks increased from 587 in 2019-20 to 628 in 2023-24.
Elephant deaths from collisions with trains increased from 14 in 2019-20 to 17 in 2023-24.
Elephant deaths because of electrocution increased from 76 in 2019-20 to 94 in 2023-24.
Poaching killed 65 tigers during this five-year period.
For elephants, poachers killed 50, train accidents killed 73 and electrocution 392.
The data are from an answer to a question in Parliament answered on November 25 by Kirti Vardhan Singh, junior minister of environment, forest and climate change.
Animals, especially elephants and tigers, suffer too in this escalating crisis, their habitats fragmented by highways, power lines and encroaching human settlements.
Signs of a growing crisis
Man-animal conflicts underscore a growing crisis rooted in deforestation, habitat fragmentation, and misguided policy implementation, experts said.
“Humans and animals have lived in harmony for ages,” said Kedar Gore, director of The Corbett Foundation, a 30-year-old nonprofit that works for wildlife conservation. “But now, habitat loss and deforestation are testing this relationship.
“When elephants trample crops or attack villagers, it’s not just an accident — it’s a symptom of larger systemic failures,” he added.
Why Maharashtra tops in deaths from tiger attacks
Anish Andheria, CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Trust, another nonprofit, noted that degraded forests and fragmented habitats have left tigers struggling.
“The tiger is a solitary animal unlike the elephant that lives in herds, but the tiger’s home is now crisscrossed by highways and power lines. Naturally, their prey is dwindling, and water sources are disappearing. For tigers, it’s not just a fight for survival — it’s a fight to exist,” he said.
Maharashtra has the fourth highest tiger population in India after Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttarakhand. But it notched up the maximum human deaths – 220 – from tiger attacks between 2019 and 2024.
The numbers from the three states with the most tigers were 33, 15 and 12 respectively.
According to Andheria, projects like mines and dams in the buffer zones near the ecologically sensitive areas of Tadoba and Amaravati put immense strain on the tiger population and induce fatalities.
“The grievances of the people living in the forest fringes of the tiger reserves go unaddressed, they turn into wounds which then leads to inevitable human- animal conflict,” Andheria added.
Odisha leads in human deaths due to elephants
Odisha tops the country in human death due to elephants with 614 deaths in five years. The number has increased from 117 in 2019-20 to 154 in 2023-24.
The reason? Similar to Maharashtra.
A research paper from the year 2011, titled ‘Man-Wild Animal Conflict in Odisha’, stated that the elephant corridor – the pachyderms are creatures of habit and traverse fixed routes – had changed and spread to zones where there were no elephants earlier.
“Large chunks of forest land have been diverted for mining, establishment of industries, roads, railways, hydroelectric projects, irrigation projects and their canal systems,” the paper by the then divisional forest officer of Puri pointed out.
“Linear projects like roads, canals and railways also act as mechanical barriers in the movement from one place to another…heavy vehicular movement on NH42 (now-55) and frequent train movement from Bhubaneswar towards Sambalpur and New Delhi side in between two habitats…led a group of elephant of ChandakaDamapada sanctuary instead of going to Kapilash (northward direction), have moved southwards to new areas like Khurdha, Chilika and Chhatrapur subdivision of Ganjam district. Elephant movement in the State is now reported in 28 out of 30 districts (except Kendrapada and Jagatsingpur districts), earlier which was confined within 16 districts not very long ago.”
Why elephants and tigers are key to the environment
Elephants, Andheria pointed out, operate as “ecosystem engineers,” shaping the environment with their massive movements: “They’re not just species; they’re symbols of the ecosystem’s health.”
He criticised the rising trend of wildlife exploitation for entertainment, such as selfies with elephants. “Let these animals be. Every intrusion into their world is an act of aggression, even if unintended.”
Anand Shinde, founder of Trunk Call, an NGO dedicated to elephant conservation, highlighted the far-reaching consequences of losing elephants..
“Around 7,000 species depend on them,” said Shinde, who has spent years calming elephants after deadly incidents, including one that killed 15 people.
“They create water reservoirs in their footprints, spread seeds through their dung and even influence the behavior of birds because birds follow the elephant herds to migrate. Without elephants, our ecosystems would crumble.”
Tigers, too, protect entire ecosystems because they need large tracts of forests untouched by ‘civilisation’. Hence, by default tiger conservation conserves the ecosystem.
True scale of wild-animal fatalities not known: Experts
While poaching and train accidents are often documented, countless deaths go unrecorded, experts said.
Noted wildlife scientist Dr Yadvendradev V. Jhala, who was part of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, said the problem extends beyond visible damage: “The true scale of wild-animal fatalities is underreported.”
He emphasised that numbers only tell part of the story.
“What’s more concerning is the lack of long-term mitigation strategies. Reliable population estimates are essential, but they mean little if we’re not preserving habitats,” he said.
Jhala warned that without sustainable forest corridors and adequate tree cover, man-animal conflicts would intensify.
Minerals: Animals need them too
Mineral deficient areas are difficult for wildlife to strive in, Jhala pointed out. Elephants will automatically look for salt, mahua, and paddy for sustenance and barging out of the forest to look for these is only natural for them.
Elephants need vast resources…water, food, salt. They are natural wanderers. As they migrate through states guided by genetic memory, they often clash with humans.
“Their migration patterns don’t align with human-imposed borders,” said Shinde.
“They’re studying us as much as we’re studying them,” he said. “They know when we’re vulnerable and when to act, so we see most elephant attacks happening after sunset when human interference is less. But can you blame them when we’ve destroyed their homes?”
Bengal has a jumbo problem too
Elephant attacks killed 436 people in West Bengal from 2019 to 2024. The annual figures show a slight decline, from 116 in 2019 to 99 in 2023-24.
Around 40 elephants died in the state during this period because of train accidents, electrocution, and poaching.
Tiger attacks during the same period killed 14 humans.
Sitangshu Das, biodiversity officer at the Kolkata-based NGO Nature Environment & Wildlife Society (NEWS), pointed to Bengal’s unplanned land-use patterns.
“Barriers like highways and power lines cut through natural wildlife corridors. Even the East Kolkata Wetlands, crucial for the ecosystem, are being filled for development. Most of the local people including government officials do not recognise the nature of the wetlands and why it is important for maintaining the ecological balance,” he said.
What the governments are doing
While the Union and state governments have introduced measures like bio-fencing, rapid response teams (RRTs), and financial aid schemes, their effectiveness remains questionable, experts said.
"RRT (Rapid Response Team) is a good initiative if equipped with experienced and trained team but there should be PRTs(Primary Response Teams) which consists of Local community members, should be the first responders of a conflict situation. Only RRT is not an inclusive and sustainable approach", Das said.
“You can’t mitigate wildlife conflicts with surface-level awareness campaigns,” he said. “Local people, who understand the forest and its nature, must be at the forefront of these efforts.”
What is the solution?
Restoring habitats, creating wildlife corridors, involving local communities, and streamlining compensation processes are not just necessary anymore, they are urgent for a country that needs to develop while not destroying the ecology.
“Animals remember; they adapt. The question is, do we,” asked Anand Shinde.
The anger of affected communities is often justified, Gore said. In states like Madhya Pradesh, where the revenue department handles compensation for crop damage rather than the forest department, delays and underpayments are common, he said.
“Why test the patience of rural communities,” he asked. “They tolerate so much already. The WWF [World Wildlife Fund] provides an interim compensation of Rs 2,000, but government mechanisms are extremely insufficient. This needs to change.”
