Escape Velocity Grants

Historically, central India and the Vidarbha regions of Maharashtra were home to wild elephants. However, elephants were captured from these regions in large numbers to the point that they were driven to a local extinction. Battle successes for kingdoms in the middle ages depended on how many elephants they had in their armies, in the British era elephants were used in the logging industries. As a result, the local communities of Gadchiroli and eastern Maharashtra have not experienced the presence of wild elephants for the past 15-20 generations.

This changed in 2022 when a herd of 23 wild elephants crossed Maharashtra – Chhattisgarh border to enter Gadchiroli. The herd has since grown to 32 individuals and now regularly uses agricultural landscapes, feeding on rice, maize, pulses, and vegetables. In several instances, elephants have entered remote villages, breaking into homes to access stored grain. Human fatalities and significant crop losses have intensified fear and hostility among local communities, most of whom are marginal farmers dependent entirely on seasonal agriculture. Current mitigation responses rely largely on compensation schemes, which are often perceived as delayed or inadequate. There is an urgent need for locally tested, field-based solutions that reduce crop damage while enabling coexistence. This project proposes a short-term pilot study to test the effectiveness of “Katidhan” (physical crop-protection deterrents) installed at identified forest–agriculture entry points used by elephants. The objective is to generate a proof-of-concept dataset on whether low-cost physical deterrents can meaningfully reduce crop entry attempts in newly colonised elephant landscapes.