The Question is... What’s Driving Jharkhand’s Deadly Human-Elephant Conflict?
Why Himanshi spent the better of October and November trailing elephant herds — and why her efforts deserve your support.
Dear Reader,
On the rather pleasant afternoon of 27 October, I met Mungli Devi at her modest, dimly lit, one-room thatched house in Rasunia, a village near Jamshedpur in Jharkhand.
Surrounded by her daughters, Mungli sat on the floor awkwardly. “What’s your name?”… ”What happened that morning?”... ”How did you find out about your husband’s death?” Every question I asked, led only to one response: “I told him not to leave home before sunrise.”
Only a few days ago, Mungli’s husband, 36-year-old Samal Murmu, was killed in an elephant encounter when he went to relieve himself in the fields on the outskirts of the village.
The question, however, was — could leaving home after sunrise have saved Samal's life?
The answer was in data: Between 2019 and 2024, 474 people were killed in Jharkhand in such conflicts — the second highest number in India.
These numbers were startling. I decided to dig deeper into the deaths of Samal and others like him. Soon, more questions cropped up:
Is the conflict claiming lives on both sides? Were the elephants always this aggressive? If not, what changed? What are the state and the central governments doing? Who are the people most impacted by this conflict?
To answer these, I spent the better of October and November trailing elephant herds in the state as they went from village to village, damaging crops, killing humans, and destroying homes.
I found how a host of factors such as mining companies flouting rules, changes in the Mahua fermentation process, poorly planned infrastructure projects, poor allocation of resources by the Forest Department, and shrinking elephant habitats exacerbating the crisis.
My journey — documenting how as elephants are being forced out of their homes in Jharkhand, humans find themselves jostling for space with animals they love, worship, and fear — is detailed in this report.
'Whose Land Is It Anyway?' Why Elephant Conflicts Are On The Rise In Jharkhand
This story was published in collaboration with IndiaSpend and was made possible with the support of a grant by Live Data Visualization (LDV) Private Limited.
Over the years, The Quint has extensively focused on similar stories at the intersection of environment, climate change, and social justice. And as a small newsroom, we need your support to continue covering these issues which are largely ignored by the mainstream media. You can read some of them here and here.
That’s all for now. Hopefully, I’ll be in your inbox again soon with another story. Meanwhile, you can also follow my work on X and Instagram.
Thanks,
HIMANSHI DAHIYA
Principal Correspondent
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