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Human-elephant conflict hotspots in Assam: a rapid appraisal method

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Abstract

In India, human-elephant conflict has been on the rise for the last few decades. The situation is worse in the state of Assam, where 5719 elephants are present, and the density of elephants is greater than that of other areas. Most of the elephant habitats in the state are fragmented or intermingled with human-used lands. As a result, human-elephant conflict (HEC) has been increasing in the state. Each year, an average of 80 elephants and 70 humans die in the state because of HEC. Most of these conflicts occur during the paddy harvesting season. At that time of year, the elephants come out from their habitats and take refuge in forest patches and tea gardens near agricultural fields and raid crops at night. Different methods have been adopted to identify conflict-affected areas, but none of the studies have tried to identify all the HEC-affected areas in the state. Here, we provide a rapid appraisal approach for identifying HEC hotspots in the state by using published news information as the primary source of data. A total of 216 villages were identified as HEC-affected areas in Assam. The identified areas can be used to understand site-specific problems and for HEC mitigation practices, as these areas are currently limited to only a few areas.

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Data availability

The datasets in this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Assam University, Silchar, 788011, India

    Nazimur Rahman Talukdar & Parthankar Choudhury

  2. CIFOR-ICRAF, World Agroforestry Program, New Delhi, India

    Firoz Ahmad

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  1. Nazimur Rahman Talukdar
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NRT and PC conceptualised the idea, formulated the method and conducted the study. FA prepared the Figs. 1 and 3. All the authors contributed in drafting and final approval of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Parthankar Choudhury.

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Communicated by Anurag Chaurasia.

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Talukdar, N.R., Choudhury, P. & Ahmad, F. Human-elephant conflict hotspots in Assam: a rapid appraisal method. Biodivers Conserv 33, 2231–2245 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-024-02858-1

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