Study calls for strengthening human-wildlife conflict control

There is an urgent need to strengthen human-wildlife conflict management across India as around 30 wildlife species are damaging property and causing human injury and death, a new study has said.
Researchers have called for identification of effective prevention techniques, strengthening existing compensation schemes and an open inclusive dialogue between local communities, governments and conservationists to address the issue.
The study examined the patterns of human-wildlife conflict and mitigation used by 5,196 families from 2011 to 2014 from 2,855 villages neighbouring 11 wildlife reserves across western, central and southern India.
The study, which was published in the July 2017 edition of 'Human Dimensions of Wildlife', was designed to help inform better policies to mitigate human-wildlife conflict.

"Of the more than 5,000 households surveyed around 11 reserves in India, crops were lost by 71 per cent of households, livestock by 17 per cent, and human injury and death were reported by 3 per cent of households," the study found.
It said rural families use up to 12 different mitigation techniques to protect their crops, livestock and property.

Night-time watch, scare devices and fencing are the most common mitigation techniques used by rural families in the periphery of reserves, it pointed out.
Krithi Karanth, conservation scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, and Sahila Kudalkar, research associate with the Centre for Wildlife Studies, conducted the study, titled 'History, Location, and Species Matter: Insights for Human-Wildlife Conflict Mitigation'.

The study said that the families near reserves in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh were most likely to use mitigation.
In recent years, these states have recorded high levels of damage by wildlife, and are among states that provide the highest compensation payments across India while in contrast, families in Rajasthan were least likely to protect crops and property, it said.
Across wildlife reserves, people reported average crop losses amounting to Rs 12,559 and Rs 2,883 of livestock losses annually.
Such losses constitute a significant chunk of India's rural economy, where the majority of the population earns less than Rs 5,000 per month, the study said.

"Resolving human-wildlife conflict requires revisiting the goals of conservation policies and investments by people and organisations.
"This is especially true with respect to effort and money deployed associated with mitigation and protection. People may be better served by deploying early warning, compensation and insurance programmes rather than by focusing heavily on mitigation," said Karanth.
Kudalkar said that such families might be most vulnerable to impacts of wildlife damage upon their livelihoods due to high poverty and low awareness regarding government compensation.