Conservation of any concerned taxa in altered ecosystems requires an in-depth knowledge of their ecology, including key interdependent facets such as their physiology, behaviour, and habitat. In addition, ecological and anthropogenic perturbations are known to influence the stress status of free-ranging animals. Understanding and assessing the effect of such disturbances on the stress physiology of an animal, therefore, becomes important to gain a holistic picture about the animals’ well-being and to enable better conservation of that species. Hence, this study, being the first detailed assessment, addresses the proximate causation of influence of some of the fundamental ecological and human-induced stressors on the stress status of free-ranging Asian elephants of the Bandipur National Park, the Nagarahole National Park and Hassan district of Karnataka using the non-invasive technique for measuring faecal glucocorticoid metabolites (fGCM). We assessed the influence of intrinsic (age, sex, body condition and lactation) as well as extrinsic factors (seasonality, group size, and human-induced stressors) on the levels of fGCM. Our findings elucidate that the stress-response in a free-ranging elephant is synergistically influenced by various ecological, social and anthropogenic correlates. Such information can help not only in understanding the health status but also in addressing the causes of conservation problems, evaluating the effect of conservation models and formulating the better strategies for the welfare of elephants.