India is the home to wide variety of wild animals even though we ourselves are growing in numbers. And this is a reason why we are having a look at this topic today.
As it is easily understandable that majority of conflicts in India include humans and animals like leopards, tigers and elephants. Although some more conflicts involving other animals are there but here we will focus more on the big three.
India has 29,964 wild Asian elephants which is the highest in the world — about 60 per cent of the species’ global population —2017 census by Project Elephant.
Similarly, the tiger population in the country has grown successfully under ‘PROJECT TIGER’ from 1,400 in 2014 to 2,967 in 2019. India has achieved the goal of doubling the number of tigers as highlighted by St Petersburg Declaration 2010.
Sounds great? But it isn’t, let us see why.
*Concerns
Elephants travel long distances, at least 10-20 km a day. So if a herd is restricted to 100sqkm, they are bound to move outside the protected area.
Territorial animals like lions and tigers need an area of 60-100 sq km. But the allocated area in some tiger reserves like the Bor Tiger reserve in Maharashtra is 138.12 sq km. This is barely enough for two tigers. According to NTCA (National tiger conservation authority) India can accommodate a maximum of 3000 tigers with respect to available area of tiger reserves.
Wildlife experts estimate that 29 percent of tigers are living outside the protected area, which makes them vulnerable and more prone to conflict with humans.
Human habitation is impinging on the boundary of many Protected Areas and the pray do not have enough fodder in the jungle to thrive on often forces wild animals towards populated areas.
*Reasons
Each year, human-elephant conflict causes in about 500 human deaths and over 100 elephants die due to human-related activities, which include
Poaching– hunting of the animals by poachers for their ivory, meat, skin or bones.
Poisoning– although this is a common method, but we are seeing more cases where people are using fruit bombs to scare off or hunt animals by fooling them into eating explosives stuffed into fruits. A famous incident which occurred last year in Kerala where a pregnant elephant was fed explosive stuffed pineapple.
Electrocution– Using high voltage electrical fencing or teaser weapons to electrocute the animals.
Collision with trains– the most common way which kills many animals, this usually happens in areas where a rail line passes through some forest or reserve.
Human population explosion– with rising human population we are encroaching more into animal habitat and that is detrimental for both man and the animal.
Shrinking forest cover due to agricultural expansion– generally happens in slash and burn type farming as forest cover reduces and the animals are left with no choice but to venture into human habitat.
Rapid and unplanned urbanisation- a very famous example of this is Ken and Betwa River linking project which will submerge 6017 hectares of Panna tiger reserve which is disastrous.
Increasing road density– with advent of highways, expressways and economic development there has been an increase in small forest areas which are formed when a road passes through a forest region; this disrupts the wildlife in the region.
Destruction of natural animal corridors– this can happen due to multiple reasons like some infrastructure development, human settlement or other activities.
And same goes for other animals.
A great Example
The Great Indian Bustard, once upon a time various bustard sanctuaries had a good population of these birds, which is a Schedule-I animal. Despite having sanctuaries, the bird has been driven to the brink of extinction. As of March 2015, around 169 birds were left. And the problem associated with this is we cannot restrict a bird? So when they fly out of the protected areas they were hunted for their meat.
*Solutions
Co-occurrence approach– Humans and animals have existed together for thousands of years, we only need to give them the space they need. There is much to fulfill the need but less to fulfill the greed.
Erection of fences and other barriers– we can even use electrical fences but with low voltage, unlike the high voltage which kills the animals.
Compensation and crop insurance– given by the government to those who faced crop loss due to animal raids.
Creating wildlife corridors and eco bridges under CSR– companies working in any region need to play their part under corporate social responsibility to develop and maintain wildlife corridors and eco bridges.
Improving community education and perception– Changing the perception is one herculean task but will help in reducing conflicts if the public knows how to react to an animal emergency.
Effective land use planning and mapping conflict hotspots-working on conflict hotspots to reduce the man animal interaction by the solutions we have discussed.
Predator deterring guard dogs– trained dogs to scare off the animals and saving a disaster from happening.
Stopping the hunt of prey animals– if the number of pray animal remains in abundance in the hunting grounds of predator animals then it will reduce the incidences of wild animals coming out of their habitats.
Managing garbage to prevent attraction of carnivores– carnivores which seek easy food in the form of human waste need to be kept away by managing the waste we generate and specially the food waste we generate.
Source-
- Wikipedia,
- The Hindu,
- Indian Express,
- Drishti IAS