Human-elephant conflicts rise in TN's Coimbatore amid forest guards’ crunch

With only a handful of watchers left in each range, and many of them tied up with daily maintenance or clerical duties, preventing raids on standing crops has become nearly impossible

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The Coimbatore forest division in Tamil Nadu is facing an alarming rise in human-elephant conflicts, with wild herds increasingly straying into villages, damaging crops, destroying property, and in some cases attacking residents.

The situation has exposed a critical shortage of frontline manpower needed to monitor animal movements and guide them safely back into forest habitats.

Anti-poaching watchers, who form the backbone of ground-level conservation and conflict-prevention measures, have seen their numbers drastically reduced in recent years. From a strength of around 160 in 2023, the division today operates with just 60.