India has the largest population of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) worldwide. Habitat fragmentation and loss of habitat have diminished food resources, and wild elephants have resorted to raiding crops grown within or adjacent to their home range. Elephants are often deliberately electrocuted for foraying into human-used areas, and this is a key reason for elephant mortalities in India. We collated data on elephant mortalities for a 13-year period (2003–2016) from the Forest Department records. We conducted surveys across Sonitpur District (East and West Forest Division), Assam, where electric fences are installed and documented their location, properties, and elephant presence. Overall, 138 elephants died between 2003 and 2016 due to retaliation, electrocution, accidental or natural death, and unknown reasons. We recorded 47 electric fences (27 lethal and 20 nonlethal) of which 49% were situated within notified forest boundaries. Most lethal fences (63%) protected agriculture fields and were seasonal installations, whereas nonlethal fences protected settlements and forest edges (25% each) and were permanent. Individuals controlled 52% of all lethal fences, while nonlethal fences were primarily controlled by the communities (50%). Most lethal fences (83%) were less than 1 km, whereas 80% of nonlethal fences were over 1 km. Elephant presence was seasonal in 56% of lethal fence locations and year-round in 85% of nonlethal fence locations. We postulate habitat loss and encroachment as two key drivers of fence installations. We recommend rehabilitation of encroachers, monitoring of areas where electricity is tapped illegally, sensitization of local communities, and involving multiple stakeholders to help reduce elephant mortalities because of electrocution.

The Asian elephant is mostly confined to mountainous ranges and therefore risks population fragmentation if hard protected area (PA) boundaries near steep slopes prevent movement. We tested whether elephant gene flow is (i) controlled by slope and (ii) affected by the interplay between barriers and slope. We used 176 unique genotypes obtained non-invasively from fresh elephant dung to assess individual-by-individual genetic distance across the Western Ghats of India, a biodiversity hotspot. To assess landscape distance, 36 resistance models were produced by transforming a slope raster. Core areas and corridors were calculated from the raster that provided the best correlation between the genetic and distance matrices. The influence of the closure of PAs on gene flow was examined for one region, the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. The best resistance raster obtained by transforming the slope occupancy model was better than Euclidean distance for explaining genetic distance, indicating that slope partially controls gene flow. Fencing elephant PAs on hilly terrain reduces core areas and disrupts corridors. Consequently, hard PA boundaries abutting slopes can fragment elephant populations, but this can be ameliorated by protecting the adjacent flatter terrain.

Tropical dry woodlands provide ecosystem services to hundreds of millions of people and support high biodiversity. Despite their importance, many dry woodlands are under high and rising human pressure, including in India, where they provide essential habitat for iconic megafauna. However, there are notable gaps in our understanding of long‐term changes in dry woodlands and how they relate to the present‐day distribution of megafauna. Here, we reconstructed tropical dry woodland change since the 19th century, identified archetypes of change, and explored their relationship with current megafauna distributions. More specifically, we compared the reliability of existing satellite‐based woodland maps and integrated them into an ensemble map of contemporary dry woodland cover in India. This allowed us to derive recent changes in dry woodlands since 1995 and, by integrating them with historical maps, long‐term changes since 1880. Finally, we used non‐parametric spatial clustering to detect typical patterns of long‐term woodland change and compared these to the current distribution of 14 megafauna species. These analyses yielded four major insights. First, we show a massive historical loss of dry woodland cover in India since the 19th century, with over 22 Mha (equaling 65% of dry woodlands) lost, underscoring the threatened nature of these ecosystems. Second, we identified six archetypes of woodland change, three characterized by different levels of continuous woodland decline and three showing a forest transition pattern of historical decline, stability, and subsequent recovery. This highlights the regional variations in woodland dynamics across India's dry woodlands. Third, we found a strong and positive link between current megafauna distribution and high woodland cover, especially for threatened species ( r = 0.43, p < 0.05), regardless of woodland histories, pointing to the importance of maintaining larger tracts of dry woodlands for safeguarding megafauna and for megafauna restoration potential where woodlands are recovering. Finally, we show that Indian dry woodlands are still undergoing widespread losses of 6.5 Mha since 1995, and pressure on them has been increasing recently. Therefore, better protection and monitoring of dry woodlands is urgently needed, and our analyses can provide a basis for context‐specific land‐use and conservation planning.

Many wildlife species survive in human-modified landscapes and understanding the opinions of those who share space with wildlife will aid conservation efforts. Using a questionnaire, we assessed the presence of 12 mammal species in 78 tea plantations in the Nilgiris, southern India. We obtained data on (i) plantation size, location, and elevation, (ii) species presence over a year, (iii) type and number of wildlife incidents caused, (iv) financial cost of wildlife damage, and (v) support for wildlife conservation. We used a generalized linear model to assess whether the distance to protected areas, elevation, and plantation size influenced species presence and the effect of these variables and wildlife incidents on support for conservation. Among all species reported, Bonnet Macaque, Wild Boar, and Porcupine were the most widespread, and the former two and the Gaur reportedly caused >50% of damages. Crop damage was the most frequent (74%, n = 244), whereas livestock predation, attacks on people, and infrastructure damage constituted <10% of incidents reported. The cost of wildlife damage was negligible for 72 estates and significant for six. The number of species increased with proximity to protected areas, with increasing elevation and plantation area. Plantation management (62%) supported wildlife conservation, and support increased with decreasing plantation size, increasing distance to protected areas, and with a higher number of species reported, but decreased with increasing incidents of wildlife damage. Mitigating impacts of a few widely distributed species that cause disproportionate damage and compensating those that incur disproportionately high costs could increase support for conservation. Education and awareness programs for the plantation community can further help increase support and participation in wildlife conservation activities. Plantations can thus serve as supplementary habitats for wildlife in regions where hard boundaries between protected areas and human settlements prevail.