Human Fatalities from Wild Elephant Attacks: A Fiveyear Autopsy-Based Study

Abstract

Background: Human-Elephant Conflict may take many forms, from crop raiding and infrastructural
damage, to injury or death of humans or elephants. Conflicts or co-existence between human and wildlife is
mostly attributed to the loss, degradation, and fragmentation of wildlife habitats through human activities
like logging, animal husbandry, agricultural expansion, and development projects. The present study is
conducted to study the prevalence of fatal wild elephant attacks, the socio-demographic profiles of the
victims along with their nature of injuries and the risk factors associated with these conflicts.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study, which was conducted by analysing 41 cases of fatal
Human-Elephant Conflicts, which attended to B.S. Medical College Police Mortuary between 2015 to 2019.
Conclusion: Authors feel that the blockage of elephant migratory routes, coupled with cultivation of
elephant preferred crops and scarcity of food in the forest in some season, inevitably attracts more humanelephant
conflicts.