80 People Killed in Human-Wildlife Conflict in TN, Highest in Five Years

Tamil Nadu is witnessing a sharp increase in human-wildlife conflict, with the current fiscal year recording 80 human deaths, the highest in five years.

- S V Krishna Chaitanya @Chennai

Tamil Nadu is witnessing a sharp increase in human-wildlife conflict, with the current fiscal year recording 80 human deaths, the highest in five years. It can be recalled that on Tuesday, a German national died after being attacked by a wild tusker at Tiger Valley near Valparai.

Besides the human deaths, the state has experienced 4,235 crop damage incidents, 259 livestock deaths, 176 cases of property damage, and 138 human injuries so far in 2024-25, according to Chief Wildlife Warden Rakesh Kumar Dogra. He revealed this during a session on resilient forest management to combat climate change organised as part of the Tamil Nadu Climate Summit 3.0. Dogra explained that these figures show the complexity of managing an environment where thriving wildlife populations and human settlements increasingly collide.