COIMBATORE: A total of 685 people have died owing to wild animal attacks across Tamil Nadu between 2015 and 2025 (up to July 31), and the human-animal conflict can be mitigated only through human efforts, said D Venkatesh, Chief Conservator of Forests and Field Director of ATR.
As per the data he presented, 522 people were killed in wild elephant attacks, and 2019 had the highest number of deaths at 62. Likewise, 94 people were killed in gaur attacks, eight deaths each due to tiger and leopard attacks and nine deaths owing to sloth bear attacks. Moreover, 22 people were killed in wild boar attacks, and 12 were killed in deer attacks.
Venkatesh was speaking at a one-day workshop on the implementation of human-animal conflict mitigation projects in forest divisions and tiger reserves in Tamil Nadu, attended by various stakeholders, including farmers, NGOs, police, railways, and forest officials at CASFOS in the city on Wednesday. He further said that habitat degradation is one of the main reasons for conflict, and when compared to the past, farming has intensified along forest boundaries.
"Instead of blaming animals, changing our approach as humans and efforts by departments such as revenue and local bodies are essential in mitigating human-animal conflict. Wild elephants coming out of forests for food and water is not only affecting humans, but their own quality of life is affected as elephants annually travel and walk between 300 and 350km. Elephants' reproductive system would be affected, and there are high chances of getting infected by cattle outside forests," said Venkatesh.
The DFO of Gudalur, Venkatesh Prabhu, also talked about the command and control centre implemented to provide prior alerts to the people about elephant movements, to mitigate human-animal conflicts. Deputy Director of Sathymangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) shared their efforts of removing invasive species in STR, and Nilgiris DFO S Gowtham shared human-animal conflict data and mitigation measures in Nilgiris.