Human-wildlife Conflict

6,000 Human Deaths in a Decade: The Escalating Crisis of Human-Wildlife Conflict

Between 2014 and 2024, over 6,000 human deaths were attributed to conflicts with wildlife in India, as per data from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). Elephants alone accounted for nearly 3,000 of these fatalities, with cattle loss, crop damage, and retaliatory killings of animals compounding the toll on both human livelihoods and wildlife populations. The National Tiger Conservation Authority's recent appraisal of Project Cheetah's expansion, alongside broader reviews of conflict mitigation, has brought the issue of human-wildlife conflict (HWC) back into the policy spotlight. But the structural challenges that enable such crises persist.

Why This is Not Business as Usual

The rise in human-wildlife conflict reflects a breakdown — not only ecological but governance-related. While HWC is not a new phenomenon, its frequency and intensity have reached alarming proportions in recent years. Deforestation and degraded habitats, stemming from the diversion of forest land for developmental projects, are exacerbating animal incursions into human-dominated landscapes. Over 26,000 square kilometers of India’s forest cover were lost between 2001 and 2021, according to the Global Forest Watch, often replaced by monoculture plantations or infrastructure projects ill-suited for wildlife movement.

Adding to the complexity is the uneven rise in certain animal populations. For instance, wild boars and monkeys — species that thrive in human-fragmented landscapes — have seen population growth due to the diminished presence of predators. The absence of top carnivores, a direct result of historical hunting policies and habitat fragmentation, has disturbed ecological balances. Contrast this with declining populations of apex predators like tigers and leopards, which historically regulated herbivore densities and minimized crop depredation.

What sets recent developments apart, however, is the growing politicisation of the issue. Measures like cull permits for species such as nilgai (blue bulls) and wild boars in states like Bihar and Maharashtra have courted controversy, with conservationists questioning whether solutions based on eradication rather than coexistence could intensify long-term challenges.

The Institutional Machinery: Are We Missing the Forest for the Trees?

India's policy architecture for addressing HWC is robust on paper. The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, amended as recently as 2022, provides a wide legal framework for conservation and management. The National Wildlife Action Plan (2017–2035), rolled out with much fanfare, explicitly emphasizes conflict mitigation, community involvement, and restoration of wildlife corridors. Yet, execution remains the Achilles' heel.

The much-lauded "Plan Bee," an initiative of the Northeast Frontier Railway to deploy bee-boxes near tracks to deter elephants, remains limited in its scaling, even though it has reduced elephant deaths in trial areas. Similarly, other flagship programmes — Project Tiger, Project Elephant, and the more recent Project Cheetah — disproportionately focus on specific species rather than adopting a comprehensive ecosystem approach for broader conflict mitigation. Rapid Response Teams (RRTs), operational in high-conflict states like Kerala, are a step forward but are constrained by funding deficiencies and inadequate staffing.

Then, there is the glaring gap between federal and state jurisdictions. The constitutional division of powers places "forests" in the Concurrent List, but wildlife management requires seamless collaboration between central authorities like the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) and state forest departments — something that remains inconsistent. Financial allocations are equally troubling: the Budget for 2023-24 allocated a modest ₹2,617 crore for the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, leaving experts questioning the sufficiency of resources to tackle multifaceted challenges such as HWC, especially when compared to competing infrastructural priorities.

Are the Data and Claims Losing Touch with Reality?

Government narratives often highlight declining poaching incidents and improved wildlife populations as intrinsic conflict triggers, implying that conservation success is paradoxically causing hardship for communities. But the data points to a more layered reality. While elephant and leopard populations have been stable, over 91% of HWC cases involve crop damage, small-scale livestock predation, or encounters with smaller species — areas left inadequately addressed by flagship biodiversity programmes.

Consider this: despite reporting over 500 human deaths annually from elephant encounters, the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) — which could be targeted for conflict mitigation — remains largely unspent. A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report from 2022 revealed that ₹47,000 crore, meant to be utilized under CAF guidelines, was lying idle across states. Moreover, compensation delays for crop and livestock losses stretch into years, alienating communities that might otherwise act as allies in conservation.

The gap between policy intention and on-ground reality is glaring. Community-led initiatives like Kerala’s "Citizen Elephant Taskforce," though promising, remain outliers rather than the norm. Worse, retaliatory killings — including electrification of fields to intentionally kill elephants — have risen, pointing to a breakdown of trust between local communities and wildlife authorities.

The Uncomfortable Questions Policymakers Avoid

Human-wildlife conflict is often framed as a problem with ecological roots, but its governance dimensions are equally critical. First, why does the Wildlife Protection Act, as comprehensive as it is, fail to enforce corridor protections in practice? Despite exhortations about restoring wildlife corridors, encroachments around buffer zones of Protected Areas continue unabated.

Second, the over-reliance on compensations post-conflict deflects attention from preventive strategies. Investments in early warning systems (e.g., thermal drones to monitor animal movement), eco-sensitive zone protection, or fodder augmentation near reserve boundaries remain marginal. The irony here is glaring: while India races ahead in technology integration across sectors, its HWC mitigation continues to rely heavily on reactive, manual interventions.

Finally, the issue of ecological justice remains undefined. Communities facing conflict often contend with compounded challenges of poverty, land alienation, and underdeveloped rural infrastructure — factors that make their "coexistence" with wildlife more of a hollow slogan than a feasible reality.

Learning from Rwanda: An International Parallel

Rwanda offers a pointed contrast. After its mountain gorillas became a source of frequent human-animal encounters in the early 2000s, the Rwandan government implemented a pioneering "tourism revenue-share programme." Here, 10% of all gross revenue from gorilla ecotourism is earmarked for communities living near gorilla habitats. This initiative incentivized local populations to participate in conservation rather than work against it. Combined with physical buffer barriers and real-time warning systems, Rwanda has reduced instances of crop depredation dramatically.

India, by contrast, has inconsistently leveraged its biodiversity hotspots for ecotourism benefits. Community-centric models such as the one implemented in Sikkim remain isolated, with most Protected Areas largely relying on punitive fines for encroachments and crop damage rather than providing positive reinforcements for participatory conservation.

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