Managing wild elephant bulls during musth in human-wildlife conflict zones requires welfare-sensitive approaches that reduce danger to both elephants and communities without criminalizing natural behavior.
Wild musth bulls face compounded welfare risks as their hormonal state drives them into human-settled areas where they face harassment, injury, or killing. The welfare imperative to preserve bull populations in healthy numbers conflicts directly with the safety needs of farming communities whose crops and lives are threatened. Welfare-sensitive management focuses on deterrence and early warning rather than reactive lethal response, and on economic mechanisms that reduce community incentives to kill problem animals. Both elephants and communities have welfare needs that good management must address together.