The man-wild animal conflict in an ecologically-sensitive Nilgiris district is nearing a crisis and if the govenment does not strengthen the hands of the wildlife wing of the Forest department and implement measures to protect the animals, especially the elephants, the conflict may reach a point of no return". This is the consensus of a cross-section of the people in this district and elsewhere, who were interviewed by this reporter in the context of the recent killing of elephants in areas contiguous to the Mudumalai Wild Life Sanctuary, near here.