Human-Elephant Conflict, why they Happen

 

A herd of elephants crossing the road in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. Photo: Tyson Mayr / © IFAW

“Human-elephant conflict” describes negative interactions between elephants and humans. The most common forms are crop raiding (when elephants eat or destroy crops), property destruction, or simply people getting too close to elephants and triggering defensive behaviours that may lead to injury or death of people and elephants. 

 

Although the term doesn’t usually include wildlife crimes like poaching and trafficking of elephants’ body parts, people who feel threatened by elephants may be more likely to ignore or take part in these crimes.

 

These conflicts endanger not only people’s safety and elephants’ survival but also the health of ecosystems and the traditional lifestyles of rural communities.

 

What are some causes of human-elephant conflict?

An Elephant at Amboseli National Park, Kenya. Photo: Reno Omokri

People have coexisted with elephants for thousands of years, but boundaries, development activities, the climate, and natural resources are changing, putting pressure on us and them.

 

Elephants are mega-herbivores that eat up to 150 kilograms of forage and drink up to 190 litres of water a day. They must navigate across large areas to find enough food and water to survive—but the land on which they depend is transforming due to growing human needs and a changing climate.

 

Around 1.2 billion people worldwide live on less than USD$1.25 a day. Many live in elephant range countries—countries where elephants roam. As some of the world’s most marginalised people, they frequently find themselves competing with wildlife for land, food, water, and other natural resources; they are also often unaware of their own encroachment onto the habitat of elephants and other wildlife.

 

Meanwhile, elephants increasingly find their home ranges fragmented by new villages, farms, cities, highways, or industrial growth such as mining. Barriers like fences and train tracks force them to travel longer distances and risk injury. The land where they once foraged is now home to human agriculture, and accessing watering holes increases their contact with villagers.

 

As climate change raises temperatures and changes rainfall patterns, resources become even more scarce and elephants get pushed into new areas, including communal lands. Humans face their own challenges as they must move deeper into elephant territory to collect water or firewood. The competition becomes fierce and life-threatening—for people and wildlife. 

 

In some locations, however, successful conservation measures focused on law enforcement are seeing increasing populations of elephants, which require proper management. As elephants feel safer, they become less likely to confine themselves to areas with low human presence.

 

How does human-elephant conflict harm elephants?

 

All three remaining elephant species are on the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species. The African forest elephant is critically endangered, and the and Asian elephant are listed as endangered. 

 

Even more worryingly, all three have declining populations.

 

Every year, Sri Lanka reports the deaths of around 200 elephants from human-elephant conflict situations, and in India around 100 elephants die annually from conflict with humans. Wildlife authorities in Kenya report having to kill up to 120 elephants a year because of conflicts with humans. 

 

The average female African elephant is 10–12 years old before she has her first baby, and Asian elephant females are slightly older. Because of their long generation time, it can take elephant families decades to recover from early deaths in the herd. And when adult females are killed, they often leave behind a calf who struggles to survive. Every elephant death drives the species closer to a point from which it can’t recover.

 

The largest male elephants weigh up to 6,800 kilograms (15,000 pounds). That makes them a hundred times heavier than many adult humans. When elephants feel threatened—or come across a barrier on their path toward food and water sources—they can injure or kill people and destroy homes and crops. 

 

In India, around 400 people a year die from conflict with elephants. In Kenya, around 200 people died in human-elephant conflicts between 2010 and 2017. 

 

Many people living in elephant range areas are already vulnerable in other ways. For example, they may be refugees who have fled their homes looking for safety or migrants seeking better living conditions, only to find themselves living in a core elephant habitat, putting their safety at risk.

 

Beyond the tragic loss of life, elephants can cause tremendous damage to homes, community buildings (such as schools), and farmland. In India alone, around 500,000 families a year lost crops due to elephants, which threatens families’ fragile incomes as well as their health and nutrition.