In heterogeneous landscapes, the utilization of space by large, long-lived, and wide-ranging herbivores is primarily influenced by geographical and bioclimatic features. The conservation framework for such species hinges on comprehending their ecological requirements in terms of temporal and spatial landscape utilization and the anthropogenic threats they encounter. Landscapes shared by wildlife and humans are inherently dynamic, and conserving wide-ranging, conflict-prone, and large-bodied mixed feeders like elephants depends on factors such as the historical context of land-cover/land-use change and habitat fragmentation, processes driving elephant distribution and abundance, and their interactions with people. Understanding these factors is essential to ensure the long-term persistence of elephant populations in multi-use heterogeneous landscapes.

The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) is an endangered species that currently occupies only a small fraction of its historical range. The Brahmagiri-Nilgiri-Eastern Ghats elephant landscape (Nilgiri Landscape) in peninsular India hosts the world's largest contiguous population of Asian elephants, numbering around 8,000 individuals. The topographically diverse Nilgiri Landscape is prone to seasonal fluctuation in resource availability for elephants because of rainfall pattern and land cover variability. The Wayanad plateau, nestled in the Nilgiri Landscape with its distinct geographical features of rolling hills interspersed with swamps and numerous perennial streams, is considered a crucial summer range for elephants. Unfortunately, over the preceding few decades, most of the plateau's forests have succumbed to agricultural expansion and human settlements, restricting elephants almost entirely to the remaining fragmented forest tracts. The rapid growth of human populations and shrinkage of the summer range has disrupted their seasonal migration paths leading to greater human-elephant interactions. Hence, the conservation of elephants in this dynamic landscape requires a comprehensive understanding of elephant distribution and its interactions with both forests and humans across relevant spatial and temporal scales. Given this context, this thesis focused on four objectives: (1) to understand the historical drivers of deforestation and forest fragmentation in Wayanad and its impact on elephants, (2) to assess the anthropogenic and ecological variables that determine the distribution and 'habitat use' of elephants, (3) to assess the spatial and temporal pattern of Human-elephant Conflict (HEC) and (4) relate conflict with the attitude and perceptions of local people towards elephants.

The thesis begins by examining the historical patterns and drivers of forest loss and fragmentation in Wayanad during the pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial periods, and their consequences to elephants. The study largely relies on secondary sources of information and key informant interviews to reconstruct Wayanad's landscape history. Wayanad has had a centuries-long history of human settlement, natural resource exploitation, and intimate association with elephants. The petroglyphs of an elephant in the prehistoric Edakkal rock shelter (~5000 years old) in Wayanad are indicative of this association. Deforestation and habitat degradation accelerated with the British gaining control of the land and commercializing forests. The ecological history of Wayanad during the colonial rule was influenced by the suitability of the land for cultivating tropical cash crops and the availability of hardwood. However, human demography, economy, agriculture, and forest changed rapidly during the post-colonial era, which led to deforestation and habitat fragmentation in the landscape. The main drivers of landscape change during the post-colonial period were: (1) integration of provinces and political change that favoured large-scale inward migration of people from the plains of Kerala that resulted in the destruction of nearly 60% of indigenous forest cover in Wayanad, (2) extensive conversion of forests for expanding agriculture, (3) continued exploitation of forests for the growth of industries and government commitments to supply raw material from forests (4) conversion of natural forests into monoculture plantations. The elephant was one of the most exploited and mistreated species, tamed to destroy their own habitat in Wayanad. Their number and range have reduced drastically during the post-colonial period due to habitat loss, poaching for body parts, and capture for domestication. The elephant population has also increased in the landscape following the enactment of various legislations after 1970s. Presently, the elephant is one of the most difficult species to manage in the landscape due to large number of them living in increasingly degraded forest areas experiencing high levels of HEC. Overall, this chapter emphasizes the importance of understanding the consequences of past human interventions on ecosystems and species to comprehend how the current ecological patterns and drivers have emerged that can help inform and improve conservation efforts.

In the second chapter, I overlaid the seasonal distribution and habitat use of elephants on land use change and assessed how key ecological and anthropogenic covariates influenced the state variable using the occupancy modelling approach. The intensity of habitat use by elephants was slightly high in summer than during the post-monsoon season. A distinct variation in seasonal habitat use of elephants was not observed; this can be attributed to the degradation of Wayanad’s forests caused by the spread and establishment of the invasive species, inadequate regeneration of bamboo following the last synchronized flowering and altered rainfall patterns in the Nilgiri landscape. As predicted, within Wayanad, elephant habitat use was positively associated with perennial water sources and swamps that ensure year-round resource availability for elephants. This underscores the importance of riparian forests and swamps for the long-term conservation of elephants in the Nilgiri landscape. Furthermore, as we anticipated, elephant habitat use was negatively influenced by human disturbance, emphasizing the sensitivity of elephants to anthropogenic disturbances.

Forests loss, habitat degradation and fragmentation since post-colonial times, socio-ecological changes, and diverse land use, ranging from agriculture to urban areas, coupled with enforcement of wildlife and forest protection laws, have contributed to a steady increase in Human-elephant Conflict (HEC) in Wayanad. Considering this situation, the final chapter sought to assess the seasonal, temporal, and spatial patterns of HEC and the underlying drivers of this conflict. Two primary factors emerged as major drivers of HEC incidents in the landscape: proximity to the forest boundary and the season. The high intensity of crop depredation coincided with the fruiting seasons of jackfruit, mango, and paddy. Many farmers have given up growing vegetables and fruits or were compelled to remove fruiting trees that attract elephants to avoid conflict, affecting food security and nutritional needs of rural households. This study found that with an increase in the intensity of elephant use of forests in summer, the occurrence of crop depredation decreased, which indicates that elephant abundance and conflict are not related but depend on the quality of habitat and the behaviour of individual male elephants which look for high-quality resources such as crops.

Overall, the thesis highlights the importance of understanding the historical context of a multi-use elephant landscape like Wayanad to better understand the drivers of escalating human-elephant interactions, protection and restoration of degraded habitat, delineation and restoration of functional elephant corridors, and understanding drivers of contemporary elephant distribution and abundance. The study further emphasizes the importance of 'key resource areas' like Wayanad's moist forests, which even after centuries of exploitation still ensures resource availability for elephants during times of scarcity, but it also comes with an increasing cost of human-elephant conflict. Additionally, the thesis offers insights into integrating elephant behaviour, the quality of natural habitats, community knowledge and their involvement in conservation to foster long-term human-elephant coexistence in a contentious landscape.