Researchers have claimed to have established a "reliable" approach to predict the likely occurrence of human-wildlife conflict which will help conservation scientists to pre-emptively mitigate them and foster co-existence between people and animals.
The research led by a Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in collaboration with Samrakshan Trust, US Geological Survey and University of Florida claimed to have analysed conflict incidences over time and revealed mechanisms that influence patterns in crop raids by elephants.
The researchers said the study has "important implications" in India, where over 400 people and 100 elephants are reportedly killed in conflicts annually.
"Mitigating human-wildlife conflict is of crucial concern for both wildlife conservation and human well-being and a reliable understanding of why such conflicts occur holds the key for effective mitigation," lead researcher Varun Goswami, heads of Elephant Program of WCS, India, said.
Using what is termed as "occupancy modelling", the researchers said that they not only "quantified patterns" of crop raiding across the landscape but also isolated reasons for changes in these patterns from one season to another.
"We were able to understand why elephants continue to raid certain places and what causes them to raid new locations.
"In this (Garo Hills) landscape, it was a combination of factors - local cultivation practices, long-term rainfall patterns, density of villages, distance to forests, and terrain - that shaped elephant crop raiding patterns," Goswami said.
WCS said that based on their findings, the researchers created 'predictive maps' of elephant crop depredation across the larger landscape for different crop seasons and gave recommendations for effective conflict mitigation.
"The framework established by this research will help conservation scientists better understand reasons for occurrence of these conflicts.
This human-wildlife conflict study done for the first time can also also be used to assess conflict patterns related to other species like tiger, leopard and other, Godwami said.
"It can be readily used to generate predictive maps of human-wildlife conflicts and pre-emptively mitigate them to foster coexistence of people and wildlife. Additionally, the framework can be used to test if implemented mitigation measures have proven successful in reducing conflicts," the statement said.
