Human-wildlife conflict

The people of Kerala will probably never forget this defining visual from earlier this year – the aerial view of an elephant at the back of a truck that cruised…

Five decades ago, findings of the first tiger census set alarm bells ringing in the government. The count of tigers had plummeted to 1,827, which was a sharp decline from…

Fencing is a key conflict mitigation strategy in the Mysore Elephant Reserve in Karnataka, which sees regular cases of human-elephant conflict. Putting up fencing accounts for a significant proportion of…

“It was around seven in the evening. During a routine inspection in my field, I discovered a herd of seven-eight wild boars. They were big, some 2.5-3 feet in height.…

“Nobody wishes to be a killer. To be held responsible for any being’s death can be traumatising. Let alone an elephant, even the death of a dog, a goat or…

Extinction is the termination of all members of a species and it occurs because of environmental forces, overexploitation or evolutionary changes. What can fossils tell us about extinction? They provide…

Asian elephants, despite needing 150 kilograms of wild fodder every day, are picky eaters, suggests a recent study in PLOS One by scientists from the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology…

At noon, on a hot March day, in the flat semi-arid plains of Kachchh, a lone figure stood on a slight rise, fiddling with the controller of a drone that…

Human-wildlife interactions are on the rise. But not all of them are positive. In India, every year, hundreds of people and animals die due to human-animal conflict. Conflicts with wild…

Chug, located in the Dirang region of Arunachal Pradesh, is a green and golden valley, with maize and rice fields running parallel to it on both sides and cosmos flowers…

It’s a scorching day in June, and Mohammad Mudasir Bhat, the person responsible for the Wildlife Control Room in Kashmir’s Shopian division, is out in the dense apple orchards, in…

The tiger is among the world's most iconic and awe-inspiring animals, deeply embedded in human culture and legends. Its distribution ranged from Russia in the north to Java in the…

The months of March and April are busy for the people of Masiyari, a village in Madhya Pradesh, adjacent to a forest. It’s the season for mahua flower collection. Everyone…

About four decades ago, one winter morning, a 10-12-year-old boy was accompanying his father on horseback on the rugged terrains of Ladakh. They had set off from their hamlet Rumste,…

About three years ago, the silence of a quiet evening was broken for Dinesh Das as an adult male wild elephant entered the courtyard of his tin-roofed house in Rani,…

A thrilling and evocative read, ecologist Nitin Sekar’s book What’s Left of the Jungle? A Conservation Story might feel deeply familiar to the readers of Jim Corbett’s adventures. A fish-out-of-water…

Until a few years ago, local communities in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli would have no fear going inside forests to collect firewood, pick fruits, and cultivate their farms. Things, however, have changed…

“Powerbaaz”. “Main boss”. No, these descriptions don’t refer to any power-hungry politician or underworld don. It’s how the indigenous Warli people of Maharashtra see their animal god, the Waghoba. The…

In January 2021, a tiger entered Keljhiri, a forest village in Harda district of Madhya Pradesh. Over three days, there were three instances reported of the tiger attacking people, with…

A group of wild elephants raided the village of the Kandaraja Panchayat last month, demolishing several houses in their wake. Among those whose homes were damaged, was Loknath Yadav, of…