Surviving The Wild: Tribal Communities In Kerala's Nilambur Live In Constant Fear

Malappuram: For residents of Nilambur, located in Kerala's Malappuram district, fear begins with sunset. As daylight fades, anxiety rises over what animal might be lurking in the dark. For hundreds of families living near the forest, this is a daily reality. Among the most feared threats are wild elephants.Drawn by crops and ripened jackfruit, they enter villages, destroying homes, damaging livelihoods, and quite often, claiming lives. While electric fencing, installed in some areas has reduced elephant movement to some extent, the protection it provides is uneven, and new threats continue to emerge.Wild boars also remain a major challenge, damaging crops and causing injuries. As if wild boars and elephants weren't enough, villagers say that sometimes tigers descend from the hills, posing a serious threat of human-animal encounters.One resident alleges that he reported sighting a tiger, but officials refused to act. Even stray dogs, once common in the area, have nearly disappeared.As Nilambur constituency prepares for its by-election on June 19, human-wildlife conflict remains a major concern for the tribal communities living in the region. Villagers say their daily struggle for survival has been ignored for far too long.