Written by PPL Newsroom• October 7, 2026• 2:31 pm• Science

Five-year GPS study maps how Assam’s elephants move through farms and tea estates

Collars on four herds and a lone male produced over 38,000 locations, giving Assam its first detailed baseline for managing human-elephant conflict.

The Assam Forest Department and WWF-India released a report titled Tracking the Giants on 6 October during the 72nd Wildlife Week event in Guwahati. It draws on GPS collars fitted between 2021 and 2026 to four female-led herds and one solitary male elephant in Udalguri, Sonitpur and Biswanath, districts prone to human-elephant conflict. The aim is to give forest managers evidence on where elephants go, and when, so that conflict can be reduced.

What the collars recorded

The study generated more than 38,000 GPS locations across forests, tea plantations, farmland and riverine landscapes. In everyday terms, that is a running record of where each collared animal was over five years, season by season.

Several patterns stand out:

Tea estates are part of the habitat. The study found that tea plantations worked as movement pathways and secondary habitats, which brought elephants close to human settlements. Budhini’s herd was recorded in tea plantations for 88% of its locations during the monsoon and 40.7% in the post-monsoon period.
Conflict follows the cropping calendar. The home ranges of female-led herds grew during the paddy cropping season, which also saw more human-elephant conflict.
Rivers act as corridors. Elephants used river channels to travel between the forests of the Himalayan foothills and the grasslands and sandbars (chaporis) along the Brahmaputra.
Key sanctuaries. The report named Sonai Rupai, Behali and Bornadi wildlife sanctuaries as important habitats for the collared elephants. Even so, the animals ranged well beyond protected areas depending on the season.

A border dimension

The tracking also recorded dry-season movement between Udalguri and the neighbouring Jomotsangkha Wildlife Sanctuary in Bhutan. The researchers said this shows the need for closer India-Bhutan coordination to protect elephant habitats and corridors.

What this means for India

Human-elephant conflict is a long-running problem in Assam. A January 2025 report noted that Udalguri and Baksa together recorded over 120 human deaths and 52 elephant deaths since 2019. The new study does not yet show a fall in conflict. It gives districts a seasonal, route-level baseline that can guide where to focus protection, crop-season preparedness and cross-border planning. Other elephant states with mixed tea, farm and forest land could use the same approach.

Why the data matters

Vinay Gupta, Assam’s chief wildlife warden, said: “This report fills a major knowledge gap in terms of elephant presence and movement in the state.” He said the five years of data give baseline information on elephant ranging patterns, especially where they overlap with human land use.

Aritra Kshettry, who leads WWF-India’s Elephant Conservation Programme, said the information will guide conflict management by clarifying where elephants move, how they use different habitats and land uses, and how this changes across seasons.

The risks are greatest where elephant routes cross infrastructure. Elephants often cross roads, railway lines and settlements along their routes. Knowing these crossing points and the months when herds are most likely to use them could help officials plan interventions, though the report itself is a movement study rather than a test of any single measure.

What happens next

The study followed only five animals, so its findings describe those herds and districts. Even so, it is a long, detailed dataset, and it is now public. Forest officials, plantation managers and village communities can use it to anticipate the post-monsoon peak and to prioritise corridors. The Bhutan finding also points to a role for diplomacy and joint planning, not only field-level work.