Experts have expressed concern over the increasing killing of wild male elephants in Nepal each year. They fear that if the deaths of male elephants do not stop, there will be problems in reproduction.
Ashok Kumar Ram, Chief Conservation Officer at Bardiya National Park, who holds a PhD in elephant ecology, warns that the continued killing of male elephants could lead to a reproductive crisis in the future.
“We have opened a breeding centre in Sauraha, and even privately owned elephants are bred by wild male elephants. But imagine if one day these wild males are gone, what will be the point of the breeding centre?” says Ram. “Killing elephants for vested interests is completely wrong. It impacts our environment and entire ecological system.”
According to him, in the last 15 years, 58 elephants have been killed due to human causes.
Conservationist Baburam Lamichhane notes that from Jhapa in the east to Kanchanpur in the west, elephant killings have been increasing annually. Just last year alone, 12 elephants were killed for various reasons, most of them being male.
Stating that Nepal has around 200 wild elephants, he warns: “If male elephants continue to be killed at the rate of one per month, saving the species will become extremely difficult.”
Sharing news of elephant deaths on Facebook, Lamichhane asked: “Will our generation truly fail to save elephants?”
Experts in the field say that human activities are largely responsible for the killing of elephants.
According to Lamichhane, wild male elephants often get separated from their herd and travel long distances in search of females. On such journeys, they may mate with females at the breeding centre in Sauraha, Chitwan. Three wild elephants, Ronaldo, Dhrube, and Govinde, have been dominant breeders at the centre.
“Ronaldo and Dhrube have more than 20 offspring being raised at the breeding centre. In various park posts, too, wild males come to where female elephants are kept and breed,” says Ram. “If wild males are wiped out like this, the breeding centre itself will eventually cease to exist.”
According to staff at the breeding centre, breeding cannot be carried out using captive male elephants within the park. They say such bulls become aggressive after breeding, making them unfit for work and likely to attack their mahouts.
While roaming in search of females, encounters between elephants and humans sometimes result in people being killed by elephants and, at other times, elephants being killed by humans. Ram suggests removing settlements and structures from the biological corridors, the traditional migration routes of elephants to reduce such conflicts.
If such obstructions in elephant routes in areas like Jhapa, Chitwan, and Bardiya can be removed, conflicts will lessen, benefiting both elephants and humans, he says. Public awareness programmes should also be carried out to stop attacks on elephants, he adds.
According to him, from 2010 to 2017, 17 wild elephants entered the Jhapa, Parsa, and Chitwan corridors, of which 16 were killed. From 2020 to 2023, five male elephants came towards Sauraha via this route, with two later seen returning via Bahundangi.
On 6 February 2025, one of the elephants named Makuna, was shot dead by the Nepal Army, deployed for park security.
According to park officials, Makuna attacked security personnel and park staff while being driven from the Sauraha area into the park’s core zone, prompting them to shoot in self-defence.
Lamichhane warns that if elephants continue to be killed every year, they will one day be found only on Nepal’s 1,000-rupee banknote.
Currently, Chitwan National Park has 58 elephants, including calves. The National Trust for Nature Conservation has five elephants, and Sauraha has 45 privately owned elephants.
