Archives of Current Research International

Farmers–wildlife conflict is a major threat to the livelihood security of rural households residing near forest ecosystems, yet the range and relative preference of adaptation strategies used by affected households in Odisha remain poorly documented. This study examined the adaptation strategies adopted by rural households in response to farmers–wildlife conflict in Dhenkanal district of Odisha. A descriptive research design was employed, and a multistage sampling technique was used to select 200 respondents from four conflict-prone villages of Kamakhyanagar and Gondia blocks. Data were collected through a structured, pre-tested interview schedule and analysed using descriptive statistics. The novelty of the study lies in classifying the ten identified adaptation strategies into farm-level/individual and institutional/community-based categories and quantitatively comparing their relative uptake. Results showed that 68.00 per cent of respondents exhibited a medium level of adaptation, while 16.00 per cent each fell into the low and high categories, with an overall mean adaptation score of 36.80 (SD = 5.40). Regular guarding of fields (mean score 4.22) was the most preferred strategy, followed by physical barriers/fencing (4.01) and changes in cropping patterns (3.82), whereas seeking assistance from government agencies (3.12) was the least preferred. Farm-level strategies recorded a distinctly higher composite mean score (3.84) than institutional/community-based strategies (3.20). The study concludes that rural households rely predominantly on individual, farm-level measures rather than institutional support, and recommends strengthening extension services, compensation delivery mechanisms, and community-based wildlife management to enhance adaptive capacity and promote sustainable human–wildlife coexistence.