Forest Fragmentation and Landscape Dynamics Shaping Human–Elephant Conflict in West Singhbhum, Jharkhand, India

Human–elephant conflict (HEC) has emerged as a major conservation and socio-economic challenge across Asia, largely driven by habitat degradation and increasing human pressure within elephant ranges. In India, expanding agriculture, mining activities, and infrastructure development have progressively altered forest landscapes, restricting elephant movement and intensifying interactions with human settlements. This study examines the relationship between landscape dynamics and HEC in the West Singhbhum district, Jharkhand, India. A three-year field investigation (2018–2020) across four forest divisions—Porahat, Chaibasa, Kolhan, and Saranda—was integrated with multi-temporal land-use and land-cover (LULC) analysis from 2000 to 2020 to evaluate habitat changes and their influence on conflict patterns. During the study period, 157 human casualties and extensive crop and property losses were recorded, indicating the severity of the conflict in the region. Landscape analysis revealed a substantial decline in dense forest cover and a reduction of large core forest areas (>500 acres), accompanied by increasing agricultural expansion and forest perforation. NDVI trends further indicated widespread deterioration in vegetation condition, reflecting declining habitat quality. These structural landscape changes have fragmented elephant habitats and displaced movement routes toward human-dominated landscapes and are thus associated with a spatial clustering of conflict events, particularly in the Chaibasa Forest Division. In contrast, the Saranda Forest Division retains relatively intact forest cores and supports more stable elephant habitat conditions. The findings demonstrate that HEC in the region is strongly linked to habitat fragmentation and declining vegetation quality rather than random elephant behaviour. Maintaining large contiguous forest blocks, restoring landscape connectivity, and implementing targeted mitigation strategies are therefore essential for sustaining elephant populations while reducing conflict with local communities.