Context: Wayanad is on the boil after a radio-collared wild elephant chased a 47-year-old man and trampled him to death, inside a gated property in a residential area. Locals allege inaction on the part of forest and revenue officials, and are demanding the capture of the killer elephant.
What is Human-wildlife conflict?
- Human-wildlife conflict is when encounters between humans and wildlife lead to negative results, such as loss of property, livelihoods, and even life.
In India almost all the states are vulnerable to Human-wildlife conflict but in different intensity.
What are the causes behind rising human-wildlife conflict?
Human-wildlife conflicts are becoming more frequent, serious and widespread because of human population growth, agricultural expansion, infrastructure development, climate change and other drivers of habitat loss.
- Habitat Loss: As human populations grow and urban areas expand, natural habitats are being destroyed at an unprecedented rate. This loss of habitat is forcing animals to venture into human settlements in search of food and water, often leading to conflicts with humans.
- Climate Change: As temperatures rise, water sources dry up and food becomes scarcer, animals are being forced to venture further and further out of their natural habitats in search of resources. This brings them into closer contact with humans, increasing the likelihood of conflict.
- Human Encroachment: As people move into previously undeveloped areas, they disrupt the natural balance of the ecosystem, often forcing animals to migrate or adapt to new conditions. Agriculture, deforestation, over grazing, poaching etc has increased human interference. This can lead to conflicts as animals struggle to adapt to their changing environment.
- Lack of Proper Planning: As urban areas expand, there is often little consideration given to the impact on local ecosystems and wildlife. This lack of planning can result in human settlements being built in areas that were once the natural habitats of animals, increasing the likelihood of conflict.
- Human-Wildlife Interaction: As more people travel to remote areas for tourism or adventure, they come into contact with animals that may not be used to human presence. This can lead to dangerous situations where humans and animals clash.
Some of the important case studies in this regard:
Hemis National Park (Ladakh): Covering 3,350 km2 in the trans-Himalayas, this is ideal habitat for snow leopard, wolf, and four species of wild sheep and goats. About 1600 people, living in 16 settlements across three valleys, inhabit the park. These people, largely agro-pastoralists, grow barley and certain vegetables, and own over livestock, of which 81% are sheep and goats and 11% are yaks. Reduced daytime guarding practices (as more children are going to school, and youths are less willing to watch over livestock), dramatic increase in livestock numbers due to increased use of modern animal husbandry techniques and increase in predator number on account of protection measure have led to increase in conflict.
Sanjay Gandhi National Park is one of the largest parks in the world found the heart of a city, in this case Mumbai. However in spite of its proximity to dense human populations, the report says that there have not been attacks on people. A fully grown leopard needs an average space of 10 sqkm each. So, while there should be 11 or 12 animals in the forest, the National Park houses 21. The leopards prey on stray dogs instead of more wild fare. Due to the easy availability of this prey, they do not attack humans. However this has raised the concern that wild leopards could contract rabies.
Wayanad region in Kerala: The district’s forests are a part of a greater forested area comprising Nagarhole Tiger Reserve, Bandipur National Park, and BR Tiger Reserve in Karnataka, and Mudumalai Tiger Reserve and Sathyamangalam Forest in Tamil Nadu. Decline in the quality of forest habitats, largely due to the cultivation of alien plants — mainly acacia, mangium and eucalyptus — in forest tracts for commercial purposes and changes in agricultural practices like farmland being left unattended makes them ideal targets for wildlife looking to snack on bananas and pineapples, among the most cultivated crops in the region.
What are the impacts of human-wildlife conflict?
- On the species - It may result in the decline and potential eradication of species.
- On the communities - Communities can experience financial losses and threats to health and safety, livelihoods, food security, and property. Crop damages, livestock depredation highly impact the local communities.
- On the ecosystem – Disturbed predator-prey balance, alterations in food web and reduced biodiversity further impact the ecosystem services having long term implication for the ecosystem as a whole.
What can be a way ahead in this regard?
Important guidelines as per the National wildlife action plan 2017-2030 in this regard:
- Identify and document the range of conflicts for the wildlife species that regularly come into conflict with people. Develop national, regional and State level databases for all wild animals involved in HWC to document frequencies of conflicts, quantum of damage to human life and property, and wildlife deaths due to conflict.
- Draw up comprehensive, science-based species-specific and region-specific, conflict-mitigation plans. These plans should focus primarily on scientific management of wildlife populations as well as land-use practices that aid and abet conflicts in and around PAs as well as urban, semi-urban and rural landscapes. These plans should be jointly developed by forest managers, scientists, community leaders as well as communication experts. These should consider and address human practices that promote conflict as well as incorporate traditions, beliefs and practices that allow for conflict resolution or enhancement of human- tolerance for wild animals.
- Constitute a well-trained and adequately equipped workforce in the State Forest Departments (SFDs) to actively address HWC situations in situ, especially those involving dangerous large mammals.
- Create a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for HWC mitigation, under the aegis of the MoEFCC, to address, develop and implement long-term and short-term measures to reduce the adverse impacts of such conflicts.
- Formulate and implement extensive education and awareness programmes to reduce the growing animosity among people towards wild animals involved in conflict situations, as well as to enlist their help in mitigating conflicts.
- Encourage community participation in the HWC mitigation, by equipping them and training them in appropriate mitigation methods, as well as educating them to avoid mob formation and harassment of wild animals during operations by the wildlife managers and experts.