HUMAN-ANIMAL CONFLICT

 

An ecosystem consists of various organisms starting from fungus to animals which include humans too. Each organism is important as they share interrelated relationships for various reasons starting from food to habitat to vegetation and cleaning of the ecosystem. With time we got to know that many things can upset the ecosystem events as natural disasters and poaching. The possibility lies in the careful balance of relationships among living beings to preserve animals in the natural habitat they are adapted to; so the government created wildlife sanctuaries, national parks, tiger reserves, bird sanctuaries, etc.

REASON BEHIND CONFLICTS

• Adverse climatic events such as droughts, and floods have indirectly forced animals to move toward human habitation for food and shelter. Many wildlife species have adapted to the changing landscape through behavioural changes for crop raiding. This is true for elephants, black bucks and nilgai. Even non-commensal animals such as leopards have adapted to surviving in human-inhabited areas. 

• The substantial recovery of one's dwindling population of animals such as black buck, nilgai, tiger, leopard and elephant has also resulted in increased human-wildlife conflicts in the fringe areas of forest across the country. Habitat loss and fragmentation increase the chances of wild animals moving out of their natural habitat and encountering cultivation and people. 

• Land use changes outside forest areas with irrigation from tubewells, canals and highly productive crop fields that provide more palatable nutrients forage also promotes conflict with herbivores. There exist clear evidence of conflict between Asian elephants and Agriculture.

Consequences of human-wildlife conflict are loss of life and injuries in human habitation. The human-wildlife conflict many times leads to the destruction of large agricultural habitation and the direct impact is increased antipathy for animals this further increases the conflict, creating a vicious cycle. In several cases, extreme steps such as immediate culling of wild animals have resorted. For example, a 6-year-old tigress Avni, accused of killing 13 human beings was shot dead by a private hunter's son in Maharashtra.

MITIGATION MEASURES

• To mitigate human-wildlife conflict we need to have 24×7 monitoring ( via CCTV), management of corridors, creating village teams for reporting wild animal presence, and many more things at the landscape level for an eco-sensitive zone should be employed. 

• The government has designed National Wildlife Action Plan (NWAP-3) 2017-2031 which describes guidelines to mitigate human-wildlife conflict by the creation of regional, state level, and national level databases and scientific management of wildlife population. This also encourages community participation through extensive education and awareness program by well trained and adequately equipped workforce.

• The Wildlife Protection Act, of 1972 empowers the concerned authorities to deal with problematic animals. This includes declaring any protected species as vermin and to be culled; for example monkeys in Himachal Pradesh and nilgai and wild boar in Bihar were declared vermin.

WAY FORWARD

It is imperative to understand that human-wildlife conflicts are largely a human-induced phenomenon combined with the specific behavioural ecology of animals and external environmental factors. Any long-term conservation measure is only possible through people's cooperation. Thus all conflict mitigation measures should be developed on the basic premise of engagement of all primary stakeholders, especially local communities.

-BHAVNA GEED.