Guwahati: Assam's landscape has long been shared by people, tea estates, forests and elephants following age-old routes. That balance is now under strain.
Across railway tracks, forest fringes and plantation belts, encounters between humans and elephants are no longer rare. In many parts of the state, they have become routine-and often fatal.
A new national study by researchers from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the Wildlife Institute of India, and AcSIR puts numbers to what many in Assam already know. "Human-elephant conflict in India is not merely an ecological issue but a socio-economic challenge shaped by land-use change and infrastructure expansion," the authors note.
Between 2009 and 2024, Assam recorded 1,161 human deaths linked to elephant encounters-placing it among the worst-affected states in the country. Along with Odisha, West Bengal and Jharkhand, it forms part of a high-conflict belt. Across India, 7,868 people were killed in 16 years-roughly 500 every year.
Elephants are paying the price too.
The study records 326 elephant deaths in Assam over the same period. Most are not from natural causes. Railway lines cutting through elephant habitats remain one of the biggest threats-82 elephants were killed in train collisions, the highest in the country. Electrocution is an even bigger killer, responsible for 172 deaths, while poisoning has claimed at least 45 elephants.
Across India, the pattern is similar. Of the 1,653 elephant deaths recorded, electrocution leads, followed by train accidents and poaching. As the study notes, infrastructure such as railways and power lines is increasing risks in elephant corridors.
Assam's landscape makes the conflict harder to contain.
Unlike the large, continuous forests of central India, Assam is fragmented into smaller patches-forests interrupted by tea gardens, villages, highways and railway tracks. In many places, especially around tea estates and forest edges, people and elephants are pushed into the same space.
The study describes these as "ecotones"-transition zones where forest meets human land use. In Assam, that description fits large parts of the state.
This is also why the number of elephants alone does not explain the conflict. States like Odisha and Jharkhand, with smaller elephant populations, still report high human casualties. The issue is less about how many elephants there are and more about how land is being used.
Some solutions are working, at least locally. Solar fencing, mobile-based early warning systems and community monitoring have shown results in a few areas.
But many standard measures are falling short. Trenches and barriers do not hold up for long in shifting landscapes. Compensation, a key part of conflict management, remains a sore point. More than 74% of people surveyed said compensation is inadequate or delayed.
The gap is not in data-it is in response.
Despite years of funding under Project Elephant, responses remain uneven. The study calls for more region-specific planning-safer railway design, better-managed power lines, quicker compensation and stronger involvement of local communities.
"India's HEC policy framework remains fragmented, with generalised strategies unable to capture the ecological heterogeneity and socio-economic-political diversity of elephant landscapes," the authors say in the study.
In Assam, none of this is abstract.
Here, elephant corridors cut through tea estates. Trains run through known crossing zones. Villages sit along forest edges. For many, this is not a conservation issue-it is a daily risk.
India holds over 60% of the world's wild Asian elephants. But in Assam, coexistence is not an idea-it is something people and animals negotiate every day, often with tragic consequences.
Without responses built around local realities-not just national averages-the deaths will continue. On both sides.
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