Overview
- Police said 65-year-old Kittappa was trampled to death by a wild elephant in Kurmanupalli, Chittoor district, in the early hours of Thursday, with a lone elephant reported in the area.
- Compiled figures for 2019–24 show thousands of human deaths linked to elephant encounters, concentrated in states including Odisha (624), Jharkhand (474), West Bengal (436) and Assam (383).
- Specialists cite fragmented ranges caused by roads, power lines, commercial plantations, farm expansion and climate pressures as key drivers of escalating encounters.
- The Environment Ministry’s 2023 Elephant Corridors report lists roughly 150 corridors nationwide, many narrowed or blocked by infrastructure and encroachment, which pushes elephants into farms and settlements.
- States have expanded compensation and early-warning systems, but coverage remains uneven, as residents near Kurmanupalli seek more patrolling and experts call for corridor protection and landscape-scale habitat restoration.