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Assessment of spatio-temporal distribution of human-elephant conflicts: a study in Patharia Hills Reserve Forest, Assam, India

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Abstract

Human–wildlife conflicts (HWCs) are escalating globally because of human population growth and increased per capita demand for and consumption of natural resources. These conflicts may be exacerbated where anthropogenic land uses are encroaching on designated conservation or protected areas. Large mammals, such as the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), are increasingly victimized in HWCs as movement across large-scale areas places them at odds with land areas used by humans. The number of human–elephant conflicts (HECs) reported in India involving the Indian elephant (E. m. indicus) have also increased. Managers require better information on the pattern and distribution of HECs to mitigate them and conserve elephants. To address this, we studied 1306 HECs reported from 2015 to 2019 in Patharia Hills Reserve Forest, southern Assam, India. We visited these 1306 sites based on our inventory of complaints filed and recorded the village where the incident occurred, the types and extent of damage, the approximate cost of damage and information about elephants. Conflicts peaked at crop maturity. Ninety-five percent of damage reported involved rice crops (644 ha) belonging to 1245 farmers, and 59 incidents involved household and property damaged. The estimated cost of HEC during the study period was 85,688 USD. The average affected cropland size of each farmer was 0.52 ha. Of the identified 23 HEC-affected villages, four villages were mildly affected (10 or < 10 incidents), 12 villages were moderately affected (11–50 incidents), three villages were highly affected (51–100 incidents), and a remaining four villages were severely affected (> 100 incidents). In villages reporting more HECs, long-term management practices, such as community training for on-sight deterrent of elephants, can be adopted to reduce conflicts. In these areas, villagers also reported the damage compensation process implemented by the government was slow. Expediting the compensation process coupled with increased community training and cultivation of deterrent crops may help reduce villagers’ animosity toward elephant conservation.

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Fig. 1

Source: Data collected from the field

Fig. 2

Source: Data collected from the field

Fig. 3

Source: From the field. Source: Data collected from the field

Fig. 4

Source: From the field

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Data availability statement

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

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all farmers for cooperating us with their time throughout the study. We thank the Patharia Hills Reserve Forest authority and the Karimganj Forest Divisional authorities for allowing us to access the PHRF and carry out this study in and around the Reserve Forest. We also thank the authorities of the Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Assam University, Silchar and Centre for Biodiversity and Climate Change Research, Udhayan for providing facilities to carry out the study. The authors are also grateful to the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Barney Warf, and the anonymous reviewers for their useful insights which helped improve the manuscript.

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The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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

    Nazimur Rahman Talukdar & Parthankar Choudhury

  2. Centre for Biodiversity and Climate Change Research, Udhayan, Hailakandi, 788155, India

    Nazimur Rahman Talukdar & Parthankar Choudhury

  3. CIFOR-ICRAF Associate, Geoinformatics, Asia Continental Program, New Delhi, India

    Firoz Ahmad

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  1. Nazimur Rahman Talukdar
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Conceptualization, N.R.T. and P.C.; methodology, N.R.T. and P.C.; validation, P.C. and F.A.; formal analysis, N.R.T. and F.A.; investigation, N.R.T. and P.C.; data curation, N.R.T; writing—original draft preparation, N.R.T; writing—review and editing, N.R.T., P.C. and F.A.; supervision, P.C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Parthankar Choudhury.

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Talukdar, N.R., Choudhury, P. & Ahmad, F. Assessment of spatio-temporal distribution of human-elephant conflicts: a study in Patharia Hills Reserve Forest, Assam, India. GeoJournal 88, 383–396 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-022-10604-9

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