India, April 10 -- Wildlife raids on Indian farms are stripping fields and pushing entire cropping systems.

But country lacks national database to calculate these losses.

New policy paper calls for National Human-Animal Conflict Mission and species- and context-specific action.

A herd of elephants passing through overnight can leave a paddy field stripped bare by morning. Boar tear through groundnut plots in a matter of hours. Nilgai and peafowl return week after week until little is left worth guarding. Elephant conflict alone was estimated to affect between 0.8 and 1 million hectares of cropland every year in India, touching nearly a million rural families.

In the Western Ghats, farmers growing banana and arecanut report annual loss...