The increasing incidence of man-animal conflict in northern Kerala have prompted wildlife researchers to go to the root cause of the issue.

Besides the straying of tigers and leopards into human habitations in some districts, human-elephant conflicts were reported from Palakkad and Malappuram districts. The incidents were relatively new in these districts and the reasons needed to be probed thoroughly, said E.A. Jayson, Head of the Wildlife division of the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI), Peechi.