Level of Knowledge of the Human-Elephant Conflict among Farmers of Coimbatore District, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

India’s immense natural beauty lies in its rich and diverse wildlife fauna. India holds 24 per cent of forest covers out of its total land area. Tamil Nadu ranks 13th in terms of recorded forest area of India. A survey was conducted among 60 human-elephant conflict affected farmers to understand the knowledge of the human-elephant conflict in Coimbatore district in Tamil Nadu, India. Among the farmers who have been victims of the human-elephant conflict, half of the population (50.00 %) had medium level of knowledge on HWC followed by low level of knowledge (46.70 %). A total of fifteen items under the knowledge category with regard to human-elephant conflict were ranked based on their mean rank. The study revealed that four knowledge items viz., elephant can run fast, female elephant would lead the group, season of intrusion into agricultural fields and musth elephants only would enter into the agricultural field has got highest mean score (10.91) and occupy the first four positions. It was observed that the mean knowledge scored for human-elephant conflict was 95.02. Farmers suggested to make the people aware through mass media and booklets to mitigate HEC.