conflictNew Delhi, Jan 14 (PTI) Re-creating a fear barrier, one-shot contraception and keeping dead animals on jungle tractsfor wild carnivores are some of the unconventional measuresconservationists and wildlife experts suggest to reduce man-animal conflict.
Belinda Wright, executive director of Wildlife ProtectionSociety of India, said conflicts between humans and animalsare inevitable, but their level has increased of late mainlydue to increasing human encroachments on wildlife habitat.
"If the government is serious about protecting India'swildlife, it must stop allowing the continued destruction anddivergence of forest lands. This is the root cause behind theconflict," she said.
"Forest corridors linking protected areas must bemaintained where they exist, or created where they don't.
Other measures such as swift delivery of compensation forlivestock loss, property damage, or life lost due to conflictare important, but they are not long-term solutions," Wrighttold PTI.
Thailand-based elephant specialist Andy Merk said thegovernment needs to address the encroachment problem urgently.
"Existing habitats have to be surveyed and improved toprovide food for the elephants, one-shot contraception has tobe developed to eventually stop population increases," hesuggested.
"Local communities need to be educated to have reducedstress levels in elephants during conflict mitigation, nofire, no firecracker and no mob crowds. Individual mitigationmethods for each elephant involved have to be developed," hesaid.
Veteran conservationist Raza H Tehsin wants practical andeasy steps to be taken by forest authorities to minimise theman-animal conflict.
He said wild carnivores have a particular tract of theirown to move in the jungles that they follow regularly andwildlife experts must trace these jungle paths.
"As the numbers of vultures and scavengers have reducedsignificantly, the dead cattle and domestic animals keep lyingaround and rotting for weeks. These dead animals can be pickedup and kept on the jungle tracts for the wild carnivores tofeast upon. This will help in making the wild carnivoresthrive, reduce the number of attacks on cattle and eventuallyreduce the number of man-eaters too," he said.
"The other way to reduce the man-animal conflict is toincrease the population of wild ungulates, namely hares andthe wild boars, both of which are prolific breeders, as a preyfor wild carnivores. Separate big enclosures can be made inthe jungles to breed them. The excess stock can be released inthe jungles at regular intervals for the wild carnivores toprey upon," he said.
Mayukh Chatterjee, who heads wildlife conflict mitigationat Wildlife Trust of India, says there is no easy or short-term solution to the conflict because it varies across speciesand landscapes.
"For some species, such as rhesus macaques and wild pigs,perhaps re-creating the fear barrier is what is needed toreduce conflicts, while for others perhaps capture andrelocation is the proximate solution," he said.
According to him, some things the government urgentlyneeds to do is stop using the word "conflict" and term it assomething more amicable like "human-wildlife interaction";train its territorial staff in managing conflict situationswith civil society groups with expertise in mitigatingconflict; develop core skill sets within the department; andrevise compensation schemes.
"Governments also need to be cognisant about changes inanimal behaviour. For instance commensalism in many specieshas been promoted due to feeding by local community folk,which has led to increased conflict," he said.
Merk feels awareness is very important on the locallevel, but it has a downside as people with no realunderstanding of local problems are blowing things out ofproportion in social media.
"In some areas we need to take unpopular measures toconserve viable elephant populations (relocation, birthcontrol, etc), but so called activist groups will always tryto stop it," he said, adding "the governments should put aelephant master-plan in place for all elephant areas.
Legislation related to encroachment has to be reviewed andadjusted accordingly."Wright says from a conservation perspective, the aimshould be to incentivise communities not to harm wild animalsthat pass through their lands.
"So, swift delivery of compensation for any loss is veryimportant. This obviously becomes difficult when there is lossof human life involved. We should also be thinking of positiveincentives for agriculturalists who allow wild animals to passthrough their land," she said.
She also points out that local communities often bear thebrunt of conflict due to activities that damage or destroywildlife corridors.
"For example when elephant corridors are blocked, wildelephants often stray into neighbouring human settlements andcause conflict. So it is not just animals that suffer fromthese activities, it is people too," Wright said.
Awareness, according to her, is important, especially toteach people how to deal with situations in which animals havestrayed into human settlements.
"Basic knowledge and crowd control can save lives inthese situations. In general, we have found that communitieswho are accustomed to living around wild animals deal muchbetter with them, which proves that awareness does play animportant part," she said. PTI ZMNABH.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.