Exploring mitigation strategies for elephant induced damages in India’s coffee plantations

Coffee plantations are agroforestry systems that witness frequent occurrences of human elephant negative impact due to their shared landscape and proximity to forest reserves. Crop losses from these negative impacts are a major threat to the livelihood of coffee planters and overtime various strategies have been adopted to prevent/ mitigate losses. However, despite efforts, negative interactions remain pervasive, and in many plantations the damage has intensified as a majority of the strategies are site-specific, short-term and often transfer negative impact risk from one place to another. This paper reviews various mitigation strategies and presents stakeholders’ perspectives in Indian coffee plantations for exploring alternative or complementary approaches through evaluations to minimize planter’s losses and advance towards coexistence.