Most wild elephant attack deaths inside reserve forest areas, says Forest dept. data; farmers groups oppose claim

‘Seven out of 11 such deaths reported in the State so far during the financial year 2024-25 were within reserve forest areas’

Even as the number of wild elephant attack deaths rises in the State, recent Forest department data reveal that seven out of 11 wild elephant attack-related deaths reported in the State so far during the financial year 2024-25 occurred inside reserve forest areas. However, according to Forest department officials, wild elephants may not be attributed for the death of the engineering student after a palm tree reported to have been uprooted by a wild elephant fell on her. It was an accident and the wild elephant would have uprooted the palm tree for its food. The Forest department did not count it as a wild elephant attack related death, said officials.

Chief Wildlife Warden Pramod G. Krishnan said that “six out of the 10 unfortunate incidents taken place during this financial year occurred inside the premises of the reserve forests. The Forest department is trying its best to mitigate the situation with the support of local people and with the available resources. But there are complex challenges: ecological, social, technological and political. One needs to exercise extreme caution and vigil while moving through areas where elephant presence is reported and to the extent possible may limit illegal and unnecessary travel into the forests. We need to cooperate and collaborate,” said Mr. Krishnan.

“Due to climate change and other issues such as more people-elephant interface the behaviour of wild elephants would have also changed resulting in potential encounters,” said the official.

Meanwhile, Alex Ozhukayil, the chairman of the Kerala Independent Farmers Association (KIFA), stated that the Forest department is fabricating various excuses to conceal the reality. “The actual reason for the increasing wild elephant deaths is the increasing number of wild elephants inside the forests. Previously, the Forest department argued that wild elephants had killed settled farmers and forest poachers. But now wild elephant attacks are also claiming the lives of tribal individuals. In addition, the absence of food availability inside the forests is the major reason wild elephants venture into human habitations,” said Mr. Ozhukayil.