Increasing human-animal conflict is forcing farmers out of agriculture, says Down To Earth investigation

• Huge economic losses due to lost crops and livelihoods, leading to rising debt burden among farmers. Maharashtra suffers annual losses of Rs 10,000-40,000 crore; 62 per cent of farmers have reduced the area they cultivate 
• Ecologists say changes in animal behavior could be one of the reasons for the increase in such conflicts – animals do not fear humans as much as they used to 
• Conservation policy must move beyond protection to restoring a workable model of coexistence between humans and animals  

New Delhi, June 5, 2026: In many parts of India, the eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation between humans (farmers) and animals (wild and stray) has been growing and intensifying. According to the recently released State of India’s Environment 2026: In Figures, elephant attacks on humans have increased in 10 states, and tigers have been responsible for the death of 40 people in the first six months of 2025. 

But it is not just these two species that are wreaking havoc. The list includes leopards, blackbuck, nilgai, wild boars, stray cattles, monkeys and even peacocks and parrots. Farmers complain that animals are now raiding their fields “at all hours and in every season”. 

Besides fatalities, this state of conflict has severely impacted livelihoods and the nation’s agricultural economy, with farmers opting to simply quit agriculture, says a recent investigative report in Down To Earthmagazine.SunitaNarain, director general of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and editor of Down To Earth, which publishes the State of India’s Environment In Figuresevery year, says: “Wild and stray animals are destroying crops and adding massively to the economic losses of farmers. In many parts of India,farming is becoming unviable because of these marauding animals. This is a factthat we are not willing to discuss, let alone resolve. The conservation community would like to avoid this discussion of human-animal conflict; for them—perhaps rightly so—if there is a conflict, the fault lies at the doorstep of humans.” 

Narainwas speaking here today on the sidelines of a webinar organised by CSE and Down To Earth to mark the World Environment Day. 

A 2025 study by the Pune-based Gokhale Institute – the first of its kind to quantify the economic damage caused by wildlife to agriculture in India – says the state of Maharashtra suffers annual losses of Rs 10,000-40,000 crore due to this conflict; what’s worse, 62 per cent of the surveyed farmers have reduced the area they cultivate due to animal attacks, and 54 per cent have abandoned at least one high-value crop. 

Says HimanshuNitnaware, Down To Earth correspondent behind the investigation on this issue: “Farmers are listing crop damage by wild animals as their key problem after unseasonal rain and low prices for produce; one-third have said such damage was the main reason for their loss of income.” 

Narain points to other studies in different parts of the country that offer similar statistics. She says: “A 2021 study by the University of British Columbia in Canada and the Centre for Wildlife Research in India found that farmers in Karnataka lose one to three months of income each year to wild animal raids… The forest department of Himachal Pradesh estimates that annual crop losses add up to Rs 500 crore, and if the costs of protection measures are included, it would be Rs 1,500 crore at the least. A 2026 study in the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu says 90 per cent of farmers identified wildlife conflict as their primary production risk, with a staggering 50-60 per cent of crops damaged primarily by wild boars, peafowl and elephants.” 

Milind Watve, ecologist and independent researcher who spoke at the webinar, says that “there is growing evidence that the key driver of this escalating conflict is behavioural rather than purely ecological – many wildlife species have lost their instinctive fear of humans. As they lose this fear, they increasingly tend to use human-dominated landscapes.” A combination of factors, including depleting habitats, tourism and failure of traditional deterrents, are being identified as the reason behind this. 

While the Indian government’s response so far has been slow and confused by and large, the good news is that it now accepts the “nature” of the crisis. Animal-related losses are now included in the national crop insurance scheme, the Pradhan MantriFasalBimaYojana. Farmers are given a 72-hour window to report the loss, which will be verified using drones before compensation is paid. Says Narain: “Whether this will work remains to be seen, given the scheme’s existing laws.” 

Nitnaware adds that state governments pay compensation to farmers. But as the Gokhale Institute report found, even when 25 per cent of farmers affected by wild animal attacks sought compensation, only 1-2 per cent received payments commensurate with the damage. “Most either did not know about the scheme or could not navigate its complex bureaucratic procedures,” he says. 

India’s Union environment ministry has periodically allowed states to classify certain species as “vermin”, permitting culling for up to a year. Bihar, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra have received such permissions – but an appeal by Kerala in 2025 to declare the wild boar as a vermin has erupted into an unseemly Centre-state wrangle, with the Centre refusing permission and Kerala introducing its own legislation in support of its request. 

Says Narain: “Another case in point is that of the National Board of Wildlife reinstating protection for the rhesus macaque as a schedule II animal, making its culling difficult. It follows recommendations from animal rights groups but discounts the fact that even forest departments agree monkeys have become a menace and efforts to control their population through sterilisation have not worked. I would call this decision tone-deaf. Such an approach will only mean more conflict, not less. This is not good for either conservation or farmers.” 

For more information, interviews etc, please contact Sukanya Nair of The CSE Media Resource Centre: sukanya.nair@cseindia.org, 8816818864