As elephant habitat shrinks, crop raiding and human-elephant conflict increase with welfare costs for both elephants and rural communities. Evidence-based coexistence methods offer solutions.
Human-elephant conflict has direct and severe welfare consequences for elephants. Conflict elephants are killed in retaliation and in management culls. Injured elephants from conflict encounters may survive with gunshot wounds or snare injuries causing ongoing pain. The stress of living in fragmented habitat with constant exposure to human activity and conflict risk represents chronic welfare compromise. Solutions that genuinely work for both elephants and communities include beehive fences, early warning systems, and movement corridors. These approaches reduce elephant killing while protecting community livelihoods, creating the foundation for coexistence that is the only long-term welfare solution for wild elephants in human-dominated landscapes.