India’s 2021–25 Synchronous All-India Elephant Estimation reveals a striking contrast. While the nation’s elephant population dropped 18%, from 27,312 in 2017 to 22,446, Madhya Pradesh saw a staggering surge. The state, home to just seven elephants in 2017, now counts 97, a 1,285% jump, the highest in India. Neighboring Maharashtra followed with a 950% rise to 63 elephants, while Chhattisgarh’s population grew 82.6% to 451, signaling new challenges for these regions.
This resurgence in MP and its adjoining states may seem like a victory for wildlife conservation. But it also signals a new and growing challenge: the rapid spread of human-elephant conflict in areas that have not seen elephants for more than a century.
Tuskers Return After a Century
The story of tuskers in Central India has come to a full circle. The Central India and Eastern Ghats (CIEG) landscape which covers Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh is made up of vast deciduous forests across the Chota Nagpur plateau. Though it harbors India’s smallest wild elephant population, it also contains nearly half of the country’s tiger reserves.
Historically, Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) roamed freely in these forests during the Mughal period. But they vanished from Madhya Pradesh by the early 20th century, largely due to large-scale hunting and deforestation under British rule.
Things began to change in 1988 when massive habitat loss in Jharkhand pushed elephant herds westward. These elephants crossed into MP, sparking unprecedented conflict with humans. In 1993, MP captured ten jumbos in an attempt to send them back but the herds returned two years later.
After Chhattisgarh was carved out of MP in 2000, three distinct elephant populations took shape:
- Northern population in the Sarguja region (connected to Jharkhand),
- North-central population in Bilaspur (linked with Jharkhand and Odisha), and
- South-central population connected to Odisha’s forests.
With nearly 44% forest cover (59,816 sq km), Chhattisgarh became a source state for elephant migration into eastern Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli region. To manage this expansion, Chhattisgarh established two elephant reserves ,Sarguja–Jashpur and Lemru aiming to contain growing human-elephant conflicts.
Visitors to Residents
For Madhya Pradesh, the return of pachyderms is a recent phenomenon. Initially, herds from Chhattisgarh would wander into districts like Sidhi, Singrauli, and Shahdol for two or three months, then retreat.
But in 2017, something changed. A herd of seven elephants decided to stay permanently inside the Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve (Sidhi). A year later, a larger herd of 40 elephants entered the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (Umaria) and never left. That herd has now grown to about 50 individuals.
By 2021–22, another group of 10–12 elephants migrated from Chhattisgarh to the Phen Wildlife Sanctuary and Kanha Tiger Reserve via Anuppur and Dindori forests.
Today, Bandhavgarh and Sanjay Dubri are considered permanent or semi-permanent elephant habitats. Smaller herds also roam forest divisions of Sidhi, Shahdol, Dindori, and Anuppur. A 2024 government report estimated that nearly 400 elephants had migrated into Madhya Pradesh over the past five years.
This rapid colonization has dramatically altered the human-wildlife dynamic across eastern MP.
Conflict and Casualties
With elephants returning, so have the risks. In October 2024, Madhya Pradesh witnessed one of its worst wildlife tragedies in recent years.
Forest staff patrolling the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve found four dead elephants in the Pataur and Khitauli ranges. Six more were found unconscious nearby. Over the next three days — between October 29 and 31 — all ten elephants died.
The central government launched an inquiry, which revealed that the elephants had consumed fungus-infected kodo grain, leading to fatal poisoning.
In November 2024, two villagers were killed by elephants in Umaria district. Earlier, in May 2024, an elephant attack in Shahdol left three people dead.
According to The Times of India (May 19, 2024), 27 people have been killed in elephant attacks across MP in the past five years alone.
Such incidents have raised alarm among wildlife officials and local communities, especially since most residents in these regions have no prior cultural experience of living alongside elephants.
Government Response: A ₹47 Crore Plan
To address these challenges, the Madhya Pradesh government has rolled out a ₹47 crore Elephant Management Plan (2023–27).
Announced by Chief Minister Dr. Mohan Yadav in May 2024, the plan focuses on real-time surveillance and electronic monitoring to track elephant movements across the state. The initiative includes setting up control rooms and rapid response teams that can coordinate immediate action during emergencies.
Additionally, the plan emphasizes training villagers and forest staff to recognize elephant behavior and respond to early warnings effectively. Infrastructure development is also a key component, with provisions for constructing fences and other physical barriers to prevent elephants from entering human settlements. The government is also leveraging modern technology, using AI and satellite tracking to monitor elephant movement patterns and predict potential conflict zones.
The project is being implemented by the Forest Department, which has already spent ₹1.52 crore in the first two years. The plan allocates ₹20 crore for 2025–26 and ₹25.59 crore for 2026–27.
“The cabinet approved ₹47 crore to keep people and wild elephants safe,” said Urban Administration Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya. He added that villagers will be trained to track elephant movement and respond to early warnings.
Using radio collars and satellite data, officials hope to predict elephant routes and alert nearby villages. Control rooms will coordinate on-ground teams during emergencies, and AI tools will help analyze elephant behavior.
Critics Say: Coordination Missing
Wildlife experts, however, are not convinced. Environmental activist Ajay Dubey called the plan “a bureaucratic formality that exists only on paper.”
“Elephants don’t recognize state boundaries between Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh,” he said. “Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and MP form a single elephant landscape. But these states are preparing their own isolated management plans.”
Dubey also pointed out the lack of coordination between MP’s own protected areas. “Officials in one park often don’t know when or how elephants move from Chhattisgarh into MP,” he said. “Without this basic data, how can you manage or prevent conflict?”
Experts argue that unless MP works jointly with Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Jharkhand, its isolated efforts will fail.
Fragmented Habitats, Fractured Coexistence
The biggest ecological challenge, however, lies in habitat fragmentation. Mining, roads, railways, and expanding agriculture have carved the Central Indian forests into disconnected patches.
These “green islands” are too small to support large elephant herds, forcing them to move across human-dominated landscapes in search of food and water. As they wander through farmlands and villages, conflicts become inevitable — from crop raids to electrocution deaths.
Across the CIEG landscape, despite hosting less than 10% of India’s elephants, the region accounts for nearly 45% of all human deaths caused by elephants nationwide.
In the Surguja–Jashpur corridor of Chhattisgarh alone, around 60 people die every year in elephant attacks, along with widespread crop and property losses.
Experts warn that Madhya Pradesh could soon face similar consequences unless it strengthens its wildlife corridors and improves coordination with neighboring states.
Technology and Training Are Not Enough
While the MP government’s plan emphasizes modern technology — such as AI, radio collars, and drones — conservationists stress that technology alone cannot solve a deeply ecological and social issue.
“Elephants are intelligent, social, and highly mobile animals,” says a retired forest officer from Jabalpur. “They remember landscapes, routes, and human behavior. Managing them requires empathy, not just gadgets.”
He adds that most villagers in new elephant zones have no awareness or traditional knowledge of coexisting with these animals. In Odisha or Kerala, for instance, people have learned ways to minimize conflict over generations. But in MP, elephants are a new phenomenon.
Hence, sensitization and community participation are crucial. Without public support, the best management plans can fail.
For Madhya Pradesh, elephants are both a conservation success and a crisis in the making. The species’ return signals ecological recovery — but it also exposes deep flaws in landscape management and inter-state coordination.
The coming years will test whether the state can balance the needs of humans and elephants in a shared landscape.
Experts recommend the development of joint management plans between Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand, recognizing that elephants move freely across state boundaries and require coordinated conservation efforts. A critical priority is the restoration of forest corridors linking Bandhavgarh, Sanjay Dubri, and Kanha, which would allow elephants to move safely without entering human-dominated areas.
Conservationists also call for restrictions on mining and linear projects in elephant movement zones, as these activities fragment habitats and force elephants into closer contact with people. Strict regulation of electric fences and power lines is essential to prevent electrocution deaths, which have become a major cause of elephant mortality.
Experts emphasize the need for community-based conflict mitigation through early-warning systems and compensation schemes that encourage local participation and reduce human-elephant tensions.
As elephants reclaim their old ranges, they are rewriting the ecological map of Central India. Their return reminds us that conservation is not just about protecting species, but also about rebuilding relationships between humans and nature.
For Madhya Pradesh, the challenge is not merely managing elephants, it is learning to live with them again, after a century of separation.
In this unfolding story, the state must decide whether the returning pachyderms will become symbols of ecological revival or victims of human negligence. The answer will depend on whether policies move beyond plans and papers and into the forests, villages, and lives where humans and elephants now stand face to face once more.
