A village on Nepal’s border with India has found a way to reduce conflicts with wild Asian elephants in recent years: By switching their crops from rice and maize, which elephants love to eat, to tea and lemon, the farmers of Bahundangi are now seeing fewer elephants devouring their harvest, Mongabay contributor Deepak Adhikari reported in January.

This change in crops, combined with a shift in community attitudes toward elephants, and government policies like better access to compensation, has meant the villagers now live more peacefully with wild Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) than a decade ago. The last human fatality recorded there was in 2015.

In the past, elephants would roam the entire 900-kilometer (560-mile) east-west corridor of Nepal’s southern plains, eating food from the rich flood plains of the Koshi, Gandaki and Karnali rivers. However, with people migrating to the area and roads and infrastructure being constructed, the corridor became increasingly fragmented.

Bahundangi, which lies in the corridor, used to frequently see houses and fields trampled by the elephants, with the conflict resulting in the deaths of 20 elephants between 2012 and 2022.

Adhikari reported that villagers would attempt to chase away elephants, but this only served to further agitate the animals and led to them attacking people.

Shankar Luitel, a local conservationist, told Adhikari that an electric fence built by the government in 2015 with support from the World Bank had helped reduce crop damage, but the elephants still found ways to circumvent it.

In 2009, Nepal’s government launched a policy through which villagers were able to get compensation from losses and damage to property caused by wildlife. Local official Arjun Karki said the move helped ease resentment against elephants. However, many farmers had difficulty with the process, prompting Luitel to step in and help fill out forms, especially for illiterate residents.

But the game changer was the introduction of elephant-resistant farming to the village, Adhikari reported. Karki led efforts to encourage farmers to shift away from rice and maize and instead plant crops that elephants don’t eat: tea, bay leaf and lemons.

“It was hard at first,” farmer Diwakar Neupane told Mongabay. “But now I have a stable income, and I no longer worry about elephants eating my crops.” The shift not only helped the farmers diversify their income sources but also addressed farming challenges such as water shortages and labor scarcity.

Karki said the farmers have also started beekeeping, since bees are a natural repellent for elephants. “We are encouraging farmers to cultivate mustard, which attracts bees and supports beekeeping initiatives,” Karki said, adding that the mustard also provides additional income.

Additionally, community volunteers now patrol the area to guide elephants away from the village, so that residents stay safe.

This is a summary of “How a Nepali border village learned to live with migratory wild elephants” by Deepak Adhikari.

Banner image of elephant statues in Bahundangi, Nepal. Image by Deepak Adhikari.