NEW DELHI: Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupendra Yadav chaired a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Wednesday to discuss human-wildlife conflict (HWC) and measures to strengthen its prevention, mitigation, and long-term management.
During the meeting, the committee was informed about the establishment of the Centre of Excellence on Human-Wildlife Conflict (CoE-HWC) at the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) in Coimbatore. The initiative was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the seventh meeting of the National Board for Wildlife.
The Centre will serve as a national institution for scientific research, technological innovation, policy support, capacity building, and community-centric approaches to effectively manage human-wildlife conflict.
The Ministry highlighted that conflict patterns vary across landscapes, with human-elephant conflict being the most prevalent in several states. Conflicts involving tigers, leopards, bears, rhinoceroses, wild boars, gaurs, primates, and other species require location-specific management strategies.
The committee also noted the launch of the National Human-Wildlife Conflict Portal on July 10. The unified digital platform is designed to record conflict incidents, manage data, facilitate knowledge sharing, and provide decision support. It was also informed that the Regional Action Plan (RAP) on Elephant Conservation for South India has been approved.
States including Assam, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh presented their experiences with human-wildlife conflict, highlighting mitigation measures, community participation initiatives, the use of technology, institutional mechanisms, and recommendations to strengthen national efforts.
The presentations underscored the importance of landscape-specific planning, rapid response systems, habitat improvement, protection of wildlife corridors, scientific monitoring, early warning systems, community engagement, and inter-state coordination.
Commending the initiatives undertaken by the states, Yadav said the challenge of human-wildlife conflict must be addressed through a balanced approach that combines scientific management, institutional coordination, technology-enabled monitoring, and active participation of local communities.
He said the National Human-Wildlife Conflict Portal and the Centre of Excellence would provide a strong institutional framework for developing data-driven strategies, facilitating knowledge exchange, and supporting states in adopting best practices.
Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Kirti Vardhan Singh suggested conducting habitat-based scientific studies to assess the carrying capacity of ecosystems and determine whether they have adequate resources to sustain wildlife populations.
"This would help in planning strategies to augment resources and manage human-wildlife conflict more effectively," Singh said.