Tusk Vs Task: Balancing Elephant Conservation and Human Lives

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: While India's wild elephant population has dropped by 25 per cent in just eight years, the Western Ghats remain a key sanctuary, home to 80 per cent of the country's elephants.

Experts stress the importance of states like Kerala and Karnataka in managing inter-state corridors in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve to maintain gene flow and avoid inbreeding.

As India's elephant heartland, these states play a crucial role. However, rapid development is impacting corridor connectivity, highlighting the need for landscape planning and proper mitigation measures. Sustainable strategies, including habitat conservation and community involvement, are essential for ensuring the free movement of elephants.

The Status of Elephants in India: DNA-based Synchronous All India Population Estimation of Elephants (SAIEE) 2021-25, India's first DNA-based study on Asian elephants, highlights the above issues. The report calls for cross-border integrated management to restore connectivity, address conflicts and combat problems like invasive species and poaching.

Karnataka, with the largest elephant population in the country at 6013, shows some resilience, but Kerala, with a smaller population of 2785, faces urgent challenges in its high conflict zones to prevent localised extinctions.

While Kerala's elephant population thrives in some of the best-managed protected areas in India, rapid urbanisation, expanding development projects, and human encroachment into wildlife habitats have heightened human elephant conflicts. The government's reactive measures and quick fixes highlight the pressing need for comprehensive, long-term solutions to these escalating conflicts.

Kerala's elephant habitats face two major threats: unchecked development, causing habitat fragmentation, and the silent invasion of alien plant species. The Periyar landscape, for example, is battling the rapid spread of Lantana, which is strangling native flora and fauna in the fragile montane grasslands or sholas.

The invasion of alien plants and forest degradation has drastically reduced available forage, pushing elephants into human territories. Experts emphasise the need for restoration programmes to remove invasive species and revive native vegetation in reserves like Peiryar, ensuring sustainable habitats for elephants.

Human Elephant conflicts on the rise

Human elephant conflicts are also escalating due to Kerala's unique mix of dense forests and human settlements. Nine districts are dealing with wild elephant attacks, with Wayanad, Idukki, Palakkad, Kannur and Malappuram being the hardest hit, accounting for over 70 per cent of cases. From 2020 to September 2025, wild elephant attacks have resulted in 111 human deaths and 1500 injuries.

The SAIEE 2021-25 report suggests community-driven solutions to curb these conflicts, such as solar fences, trench barriers and crop insurance. Real-time tracking technologies like radio collars and GPS can provide timely alerts on elephant movements. Involving local councils in co-management initiatives is also essential for effective conservation efforts.

Kerala's wild elephant attacks have ignited a heated debate, weighing human safety against wildlife conservation. The issue has become a hot topic, with political parties clashing and the matter gaining national attention. As public outrage grows, the state government faces increasing pressure to find a solution that protects both human lives and wildlife.

With local body polls in November and December and assembly polls early next year, the human elephant conflict is set to dominate discussions. Around 400 of Kerala's 941 grama panchayats are struggling with wild elephant invasions and attacks, making the issue urgent.

The situation is especially critical in 273 high-risk hotspots where conflicts are frequent, and 30 villages are dealing with ever-increasing elephant-related problems, including loss of lives and livelihoods due to crop destruction.

Wayanad MP Priaynka Gandhi Vadra led protests outside Parliament this year, calling for central funds to prevent human-animal conflicts. The ruling LDF, on the other hand, dismisses the opposition protests as propaganda. It highlights its 10 mission plan launched in February 2025, focusing on surveillance, volunteer forces and radio collaring. The budget for conflict mitigation has also been doubled to 41.33 crore since 2021, reflecting the government's commitment to tackling the problem.

Human elephant conflict in Karnataka

Human elephant conflicts in Karnataka have escalated significantly. Shrinking habitats in Bandipur and Nagarahole are under pressure from expanding farms and infrastructure projects. The impact is severe, with lives lost, crops destroyed and properties damaged. Immediate measures are crucial - protect elephant corridors, support local communities and promote peaceful coexistence.

The state's elephant habitats face unprecedented threats from fragmented landscapes, human settlements and plantations. Experts emphasise the urgent need to restore habitat connectivity and secure disrupted corridors affected by plantations like coffee and eucalyptus, infrastructure and settlements.

With the highest elephant density in the country, Karnataka sees frequent crop raids and human casualties in areas such as Bandipur, Nagarahole and Kodagu between 2020-2025. Wild elephants have caused at least 198 deaths, with Chamarajanagar, Kodagu, Hassan and Chikamangaluru being the worst hit districts.

Steps required to be implemented

Mapping and restoring corridors connecting Kerala's forests with Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, such as the Wayanad-Bandipur corridor, is essential. Tourism and commercial activities near protected areas must be regulated to reduce habitat disturbance. Extensive campaigns should focus on educating communities about coexistence strategies, highlighting elephants' ecological role and addressing negative perceptions caused by human elephant conflicts.

Strict environmental impact assessments for roads, railways and dams are necessary to prevent habitat fragmentation. The report suggests adopting SAIEE's DNA-based methodology for annual monitoring to track propagations and measure conservation success, emphasising its scalability.

Kerala elephant data at a glance

Population Estimate: Kerala has an estimated 2785 elephants, the fourth highest among states, with a density of around 0.3-0.5 elephants per sq km in core areas like the Periyar Tiger Reserve and Annamalai Parambikulam landscapes.

Human elephant Conflict: Kerala experiences high-intensity conflicts, accounting for roughly 25 percent of national elephant-related human deaths, including incidents like trampling and crop raiding.

Conservation recommendations: Urgent landscape-level planning, corridor restoration - linking Wayanad to Nilgiris, and community engagement are crucial. While Kerala's radio collaring efforts are commendable, genetic monitoring is recommended to assess inbreeding risks in a fragmented population.

Karnataka elephant status

Karnataka is home of the largest elephant population in India, with around 6,013 elephants, making up to 27 per cent of the national total.

Most of these elephants are found in the Nilgiri Nagarhole Bandipur area within the Western Ghats, with high densities of over two elephants per square km in Bandipur and Nagarhole tiger reserves. However, Karnataka also faces significant human elephant conflict, accounting for about 30 per cent of India's elephant attacks on humans.

This conflict leads to crop damage affecting over 10,000 farmers annually and approximately 50 human deaths each year. To address these challenges, conservation efforts should focus on expanding elephant reserves like the Mysore Elephant reserve, creating underpasses and overpasses for corridors and utilising AI-based tracking systems.