Wildlife raids on Indian farms are stripping fields and pushing entire cropping systems. But country lacks national database to calculate these losses.New policy paper calls for National Human-Animal Conflict Mission and species- and context-specific action. A herd of elephants passing through overnight can leave a paddy field stripped bare by morning. Boar tear through groundnut plots in a matter of hours. Nilgai and peafowl return week after week until little is left worth guarding. Elephant conflict alone was estimated to affect between 0.8 and 1 million hectares of cropland every year in India, touching nearly a million rural families. In the Western Ghats, farmers growing banana and arecanut report annual losses approaching or exceeding Rs 1 lakh in severely affected years. In Himachal Pradesh’s hill zones, a field study found an average economic loss of Rs 25,358 per affected farm, with cultivated area shrinking by 12-17 per cent in conflict-prone zones. A 2021 ...