Slide background Elephant inspecting an auto rickshaw Elephant inspecting an auto rickshaw

Human-Elephant Conflict in Asia

Humans and elephants in Asia have a long history of living and working alongside each other. Hindu and Buddhist religious traditions accord the elephant a sacred status and humans have been taming, training and riding elephants for millennia. The loss of traditional forms of employment, particularly in logging, has resulted in welfare problems not just for elephants, but also for their handlers. Both of these issues present a challenge for how the two species can share space and live together.

As of 2013, Asia’s elephant population has experienced a 90% decline in the past 100 years and a rough calculation suggests that as much as 95 percent of the original habitat has been lost over the same period.

The rise in Human-Elephant Conflict has been the result of the rapid rise of the human population in Asia. Approximately 20% of the global human population shares the present shrinking range of the remaining 30,000 Asian elephants. This small population is further fragmented into ten different sub-populations with fewer than 1000 individuals living in any one contiguous area.

A beehive fence in Sri Lanka

This habitat is also shrinking rapidly and wild elephant populations are presently living in mostly small, isolated patches, unable to socialise as ancient migratory routes are cut off by human settlements.

Incidents of elephants raiding crops and villages are on the rise. This causes losses to human property and, sometimes, human lives. Retaliation by villagers often results in killings of these elephants. Experts already consider such confrontations to be the leading cause of elephant deaths in Asia.
Sign for people at the orphanage

Sign for visitors at the elephant orphanage in Uda Walawe, Sri Lanka

This human-elephant conflict ‘war’ is particularly harsh in India and Sri Lanka. India sees approximately 300 people killed per year by elephants and in 2012 alone, over 60 people were killed by elephants in Sri Lanka. Unfortunately over 250 elephants have consequently been killed by farmers defending their crops in Sri Lanka.

Damage to a house after an elephant raid

Elephant with cows

Elephant with cows

Poaching of Asian elephants for ivory, skin and meat is also becoming a serious problem in many countries, especially in southern India and in north-east India where some people eat elephant meat.

In Asian elephants, only males carry tusks and therefore poaching is aimed exclusively at males. Selective removal of tuskers for their ivory may lead to an increase in the proportion of tuskless males in the population and a skew towards females in elephant populations.

Ivory carvings

Ivory carvings

The Elephants and Bees Project has now started to conduct research and collaborate with Asia elephant researchers to see if Beehive Fence could work to reduce human elephant conflict and promote practical and inexpensive ways to help people protect themselves and their crops.