Conflict in the backyard: In Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris, forest corridors run through homes, estates and roads

In Mavinhalla, on the fringes of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve near Masinagudi in Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris, people do not describe the forest edge as a buffer zone. It is where they graze livestock, collect fuel, walk to nearby settlements and carry out daily work.

That is why the death of 51-year-old Nagiyammal, a tribal woman killed by a tiger in the last week of November 2025, triggered fear and anger across the region. She had stepped out with her livestock towards a stream bordering forest land when the tiger attacked. Forest officials later said the injuries suggested a predatory attack.

For residents of Mavinhalla and nearby settlements such as Bikkapuram, Mudumalai, Vazhaithottam and Sigur, the incident was not seen as isolated. Village residents blocked roads and resisted handing over the body for post-mortem, demanding that the administration act before, not after, such deaths.

The Tamil Nadu Forest Department then launched a search operation using camera traps, thermal drones and intensified patrols along cattle routes and water sources. Officials identified an aging male tiger, believed to be weakened and displaced, as the animal responsible. It was later captured and, after veterinary examination, declared unfit for release into the wild. The tiger was shifted to Arignar Anna Zoological Park in Chennai.

For the administration, the case was closed. For Mavinhalla, the fear remained.

Elephant routes through settlements

From Masinagudi to Gudalur, the nature of conflict changes, but the risk remains. Tea estates, tribal settlements, private landholdings, degraded forests and old wildlife corridors form a dense landscape where people and animals frequently cross paths.

In Gudalur, elephants dominate everyday fear. Footpaths, estate roads and labour lines often lie close to elephant routes, especially along the Sigur Plateau, which connects the Western and Eastern Ghats.

Older residents still recall the death of C K Hamza from Pakkana, who was killed by an elephant about a decade ago. Local people say his death marked a turning point, when what officials described as occasional conflict began to look like a structural problem.

In the same belt, Abid Ali, an autorickshaw driver, survived an elephant attack on a narrow estate road. His vehicle was crushed and he was seriously injured, but he managed to protect a woman passenger. Residents say such incidents show how roads in these areas are not just transport routes, but also points of conflict, especially at dawn and dusk when workers, women and schoolchildren are on the move.

Poor housing deepens the risk

Some attacks occur not in forests or fields, but near homes. In 2023, Poongodi Alagaratnam, a worker in the Pandiyar division of the Tamil Nadu Tea Plantation Corporation near Gudalur, was killed by an elephant while returning with her husband after using a common bathroom facility outside their labour quarters. Her husband survived with severe injuries.

Her sister Priya, who later occupied the same quarters as another estate employee, says the death was linked to poor living conditions. Workers did not have independent toilets and had to walk exposed paths at hours when elephants were moving.

In Nelliyalam, a municipality surrounded by tea estates and forest patches, Udayasooryalakshmi was killed by an elephant while washing utensils outside her home. Her husband, Paramasivam Marimuthu, says the compensation the family received did little to restore a sense of safety.

In 2025 alone, the Nilgiris recorded multiple elephant-related human deaths. A tribal man was killed near Bokkapuram, close to Masinagudi, while walking towards a neighbouring village early in the morning. An elderly man was trampled in a Gudalur tea estate despite forest alerts about elephant movement.

These attacks did not take place deep inside forests. They occurred in settlement and estate areas where daily routines overlap with animal movement.

‘Not only an animal issue’

Gudalur, Pandalur, O Valley, Devarshola, Kolappally, Bitherkad and Nelliyalam are among the areas where residents say conflict has become routine. Elephants enter estates, roads, ration-shop areas, water points and domestic spaces.

V D Selvaraj, a farmers’ leader from Gudalur, says the crisis is ecological as well as social. “This is not only an animal issue,” he says. “It is about how people are made to live. Habitat is broken, estates are neglected, and the poor face animals on foot. Eco-restoration matters, not just patrols after a death.”

According to Selvaraj, several tea estates in the region, including those originally established for Sri Lankan Tamil repatriates, have become economically unviable. Neglect has allowed invasive vegetation to spread, while water points remain close to labour lines. These changes attract elephants, gaur and wild boar into human-used spaces.

Residents say animals are now being identified, named and blamed after repeated encounters. Each death reopens anger over what communities see as poor planning and weak protection.

Crop losses add to the pressure

Beyond tiger and elephant attacks, farmers speak of crop damage caused by wild boar, peacocks and gaur. Wild boar raid fields at night, forcing farmers to guard crops in unsafe conditions. Peacocks uproot seedlings. Gaur move through fields and damage crops, though such losses rarely receive wider attention.

Farmers say the damage accumulates quietly, pushing families into debt or forcing them to give up cultivation. In many villages, resentment is driven not by hostility towards wildlife, but by the feeling that people are being asked to bear the cost of conservation without adequate support.

Tamil Nadu’s conflict burden beyond the Nilgiris is also rising. Government data cited publicly shows that in a recent financial year, the state recorded around 80 human deaths linked to wildlife conflict, along with thousands of crop-damage cases, livestock losses, property damage and human injuries.

The problem is not limited to the Nilgiris. In Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri, elephant herds move between fragmented forests and villages. In Vellore and Tiruvannamalai, leopards enter densely populated rural areas in search of livestock and dogs. In parts of the Eastern Ghats and delta regions, wild boar and deer cause repeated crop losses.

Technology not silver bullet

Under growing pressure, Tamil Nadu has begun using technology to respond to conflict. In the Gudalur forest division, the state has commissioned an artificial intelligence-enabled command and control centre to monitor vulnerable locations. Cameras, siren poles, messaging systems, thermal drones and rapid response teams are meant to warn communities before animals enter human-used areas.

But activists say early warning systems cannot substitute for landscape-level planning.

K Mohanraj, an environmental activist based in Coimbatore, says conflict is a predictable result of development blocking wildlife corridors. “There is no forest without elephants,” he says. “When you choke these paths with construction and settlements, elephants do not disappear. They walk through what remains.”  

Corridors, he says, are not optional routes. They are old movement paths that animals continue to use even when settlements, estates and roads occupy them. For communities living along Tamil Nadu’s forest edges, coexistence now depends on corridor protection, habitat restoration, safer housing, better estate planning, reliable warnings and faster support after losses.