Komarla, JoshikaNigam, ParagKumar, AnandaNath, Anukul2026-07-292026https://digitalrepository.wii.gov.in/handle/123456789/1460As habitat loss and fragmentation continue to increase, mega-herbivores such as Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) increasingly traverse mixed-use landscapes where human-elephant encounters are frequent. Such encounters may influence elephant behaviour by altering activity patterns over time, modifying the relative frequencies of behavioural events, and shaping the behavioural repertoire exhibited. In this context, I examined the effect of human presence and associated activities on elephant behaviour on the Valparai Plateau, a rainforest-plantation mosaic in the Anamalai Hills of the Southern Western Ghats. Behavioural observations were conducted over a 104-day field season using 370 instantaneous group scans and 499 focal observations of identified individuals. My findings suggest that human presence did not have a measurable impact on the behavioural composition of time activity patterns; however, encounter characteristics – particularly crowd size and human identity – did account for variations in these patterns. Increasing crowd size was associated with a 10 % reduction in predicted time allocated to foraging. Behavioural events such as vigilance, avoidance, and agitation were more sensitive to anthropogenic influence, with effects evident in both coarse- and fine-scale analyses. The odds of stress-induced behaviours were sevenfold in the presence of humans; however, beyond a threshold distance of approximately 70 meters (69.9 meters), the likelihood of such responses declined substantially. Proximity to elephants and human identity were important predictors for this response. Additionally, different human groups elicited different stress-induced responses, with Forest Department personnel eliciting more avoidance and agitation responses than expected; however, this pattern requires further quantitative assessment. Herd cohesion was not affected by human presence and was weakly affected by encounter characteristics, with biological parameters like age and sex explaining the pattern better. Habitat selection analysis using Manly’s Selection Ratio suggests that natural habitats such as forest fragments, riparian sections, as well as Eucalyptus stands were preferentially selected for, and used disproportionately to their availability, whereas dominant landscape features like tea and coffee plantations , were used less than expected relative to their availability, during daylight hours. These findings suggest that elephants inhabiting mixed-use landscapes with a long history of both human use and elephant activity may tolerate human presence at a broad level, but certain encounters may still be perceived as riskyenHabitat fragmentationHuman wildlife conflictNATURAL SCIENCES::Biology::Terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecology::Ethology and behavioural ecologyActivity patternHabitat selectionAsian elephantElephas maximusHuman elephant conflictThesis