Human Elephant Conflict-An Intricate Tale from the Kurseong Forest Division of Northern West Bengal

Abstract

Man-elephant conflict is a crucial problem faced all around the world. The association between man and elephant in Northern West Bengal is ancient but over the years it has assumed a severe character due to ever increasing human population, diminishing forests and consequent habitat loss of Asian elephants. As a result, elephant range overlaps with human dominated areas resulting in conflict situations. The evaluation of human-elephant conflict was carried out from January 2015 to December 2015 through the use of structured datasheets covering an area of 250 km² approximately. This paper is prepared in the light of the situation's gravity, which demands proper study, so that the causes of the problem can be identified and necessary suggestion can be listed for its solution. Although human-elephant conflict cannot be eliminated altogether, yet every endeavour must be taken to reduce it to tolerable levels.