Human–Elephant Conflict (HEC) has escalated into one of India's most serious conservation and socio-economic challenges, with high costs for both people and elephants. We examined national-level trends in HEC from 2009 to 2024 and evaluated the effectiveness of current policies in mitigating it. Over the past 16 years, a total of 7,868 human fatalities were recorded from elephant encounters, averaging nearly 500 deaths annually. Notably, four states, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Assam, acc