ELEPHANT - HUMAN COMFLICT PROJECT
Elephant-human conflict is a result of habitat loss and fragmentation. When elephants and humans interact, there is conflict from crop raiding, injuries and deaths to humans caused by elephants, and elephants being killed by humans for reasons other than ivory and habitat degradation.
Elephant-human conflict poses a grave threat to their continued existence. research on conflict between elephants and humans in Tanzania Kilimanjaro Region, Mwanga District, at the villages of Butu, Ruru, Mkisha, Toloha and kwakoa including Same. all bordering Mkomazi national park and the Tsavo west national park of Kenya have identified crop raiding as the main form of conflict.
Elephants cause damage amounting from a few thousand dollars to millions of dollars. Every year, 70 humans (in some years it may be 150 people) and 40-50 elephants are killed during crop raiding in in Tanzania.
Lethal retaliation against elephants
Such encounters foster resentment against the elephants amongst the human population and this can result in elephants being viewed as a nuisance and killed. This was illustrated in the case of >2-5 elephants found dead in retaliation incidents in Mkisha village in 2022, poisoned by plantation workers.
Human-elephant conflict can take their toll both on human lives and property as well as elephant populations. Ways of reducing or resolving such conflicts are vital for the viable conservation of Tanzania elephants.
Elephants across Tanzania live in a variety of habitats and landscapes. These include large contiguous areas surrounded by crop fields, or in highly degraded areas with other agricultural encroachments and they are also found in fragmented landscapes with a mosaic of crop fields, plantations and patches of forest.
In addition to these direct conflicts between humans and elephants, elephants also suffer indirect costs like degradation of habitat and loss of food plants.
