Identifying the causes of human-elephant conflict in the Indo-Bhutan foothill region of Assam

Significant changes in land use and land cover (LULC) lead to the shrinking of elephant habitats and regular human-elephant confrontations, triggering human-elephant conflict (HEC). The present study aims to assess the underlying causes of HEC in the Indo-Bhutan Foothill region of Assam, India by using both primary and secondary data. The study area was divided into three buffer zones extending from the forest zone. Landsat 4-5 TM C2L2 and Landsat 8-9 OLI/TIRS C2L2 data were used for supervised image classification for 2011 and 2023, respectively, to detect LULC changes. A Getis-Ord Gi analysis was performed to identify hotspots, and kernel density analyses were used to map HEC density. Further, primary data were collected from 384 households in 2023 using a semi-structured interview schedule. A decrease in agricultural land was observed across all zones in all districts. Dense forest vegetation increased in all zones except zones 1 and 2 of the Udalguri district. An increase in built-up areas/settlements, open forest and man-made vegetation was evident throughout the study area. The density of HEC incidents is highly concentrated in zone 1 across three of the districts, except in Chirang. The hotspot patterns are more pronounced in Udalguri and Baksa at confidence levels of 99%, 95% and 90%, whereas in Kokrajhar, they are significant only at 99%, and no hotspots were observed in Chirang. The main reasons for HEC are changes in LULC, distance from elephant habitats, and the attraction of elephants to available of food sources in the human landscape.