Coimbatore, Jan 29
As many as 685 people have lost their lives in human-wildlife conflicts in Tamil Nadu over the past decade, including 43 deaths recorded last year alone, senior forest department officials said in a statement, cautioning that technology and enforcement alone cannot address the growing crisis.
D. Venkatesh, Chief Conservator of Forests and Field Director of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR), said it was impossible to bring down conflict levels without the active participation of local communities living along forest fringes.
The Tamil Nadu forest department held a seminar on mitigating human-animal conflict at the Central Academy for State Forest Service in Coimbatore on Wednesday. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Head of the Forest Force (HoFF) Srinivas R. Reddy and forest officials from Coimbatore, Hosur, Sathyamangalam, the Nilgiris, Dindigul, Kodaikanal and Tenkasi participated in the seminar, which focused on collaborative strategies for coexistence between humans and wildlife.
Venkatesh noted that districts along the Western Ghats -- including Tenkasi, Virudhunagar, Coimbatore, Tirupur, Theni, Salem, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri -- were witnessing a high incidence of encounters between people and wildlife.
Explaining the ecological factors behind the rising conflicts, Venkatesh said several forest landscapes that appear green have effectively turned into “green deserts” due to the spread of invasive plant species that fail to support native fauna. Such degradation, he said, has disrupted traditional wildlife movement patterns and intensified encounters with humans. He pointed out that elephants, once largely confined to the Berijam region of Kodaikanal, are now being spotted across district boundaries in Dindigul, reflecting altered migratory routes caused by habitat loss and fragmentation.
Encroachment of forest land, conversion of mud roads into tar roads that cut through animal corridors, and the expansion of cash crop cultivation close to forest boundaries were cited as major contributors to the problem.
While most fatalities occur during accidental encounters, the statement said human-induced disturbances have significantly increased the frequency and severity of conflict situations.
Over the past ten years, such conflicts have resulted in 685 deaths across the state, underlining the scale of the challenge.
The forest department said it has been taking sustained steps to gradually reduce conflict, including deploying artificial intelligence-based monitoring systems to track elephant movements round the clock and issue early warnings to vulnerable villages. However, officials stressed that these measures would be effective only with community cooperation, adherence to advisories and long-term habitat protection efforts.
