A villager has been arrested for shooting an Elephant in the Jawalagiri Forest in Tamil Nadu State, India. Muthu Mallesh, 40, from the village of Chennamaalam, reported the dead Animal, which was in a trench on his land, to the Forest Department, claiming that it had died in an accident. However, an examination of the Elephant found a number of bullet wounds, causing Mallesh to flee the scene, behaviour which led to his arrest. This is the tenth recorded death of an Elephant in the Jawalagiri Forest since April this year (2020).
The population of India has risen from 376 million in 1950 to 1339 million today, fuelling an expansion of both urban and agricultural land use into former wilderness areas. The wild Elephant population has declined over the same period, but still stands at about 27 000. Many animals will simply flee such incursions, or, if unable to, are likely to end up in the cooking pots of hungry villagers. Elephants, however, are a somewhat different proposition. They are large animals, not used to being challenged by other animals in their home ranges, and typically live in matriarchal herds of up to a hundred, with herds holding large territories, criss-crossed by Elephant trails. A herd of Elephants encountering a new Human settlement, particularly a poorly defended structure, are unlikely to attempt to go round it, and are quite likely to maximise the damage they cause to show their displeasure. This has resulted in an increasing cycle of Elephant-Human conflict in rural areas of India, with 2361 people killed by Elephants between 2014 and 2019, while in the same period 510 Elephants were killed by people.
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