Rising human activity in the forested areas of Odisha has brought people into conflict with animals in the wild, particularly elephants. “When elephants destroy the crop or human settlements, people, in turn, harm the elephant in retaliation,” said Medha Nayak, who conducted a research project titled Understanding human and elephant interactions in Northern Odisha in 2020. Forced localisation of elephant population as a result of habitat fragmentation can cause habitat degeneration and due to local overfeeding, elephant populations often forage on crops like paddy, sugarcane, maize, etc.