Overview
- A five-year GPS telemetry project by the Assam Forest Department and WWF‑India tracked four female-led herds and one male elephant and produced more than 38,000 location fixes that map seasonal movements across forests, tea gardens, river channels and grasslands.
- The report identifies Sonai Rupai, Behali and Bornadi wildlife sanctuaries as core habitats and shows elephants using river channels and tea plantations as key north–south movement routes between Himalayan foothills and Brahmaputra chaporis.
- Researchers found frequent crossings of roads, rail lines and settlements along those routes, a pattern the report links to elevated risks of human and elephant injury and death.
- The published recommendations call for district-level coordination committees, an anti-electrocution cell, early-warning systems, infrastructure mitigation and additional collaring and health/diet studies to reduce conflict and protect corridors.
- The immediate test will be implementing those measures across Udalguri, Sonitpur and Biswanath districts so that infrastructure planning and plantation management align with the mapped corridors to reduce future clashes between people and elephants.