Q.6. What are human wildlife conflicts? State a few ways to avoid such conflicts.
Ans. Introduction: Human wildlife conflict refers to the interaction between wild animals and people and the resultant negative impact on people or their resources, or wild animals and their habitat.
Causes of Human Wildlife Conflicts:
(i) Population Explosion: Due to the ever increasing population, humans are acquiring more forest lands thus reducing the available land which serves as habitats of animals. Animals have started entering human settlements for food and other resources, thus causing human wildlife conflicts.
(ii) Competition for food: With changing food cycles, the competition for food increases, forcing humans and animals to enter each other's habitats.
Outcomes of the conflict:
- Injury and loss of life of humans and wildlife
- Crop damage, livestock depredation, predation of managed wildlife stock
- Damage to human property
- Trophic cascades
- Destruction of habitat
- Collapse of wildlife populations and reduction of geographic ranges
Case Study: Corbett National Park
The Corbett National Park of Uttarakhand is famous for notable man eater leopard, responsible for at least 400 attacks on humans. Leopard of Panar, Leopard of Rudraprayag and Leopard of the Mulher Valley have claimed thousands of human and cattle lives. Leopards are still one of the mostdangerous animal in India and responsible for many human lives alone among the other four big cats of India.
Case Study: Sunderbans Bengal Tiger
The largest Swamp and mangroves forest of India is also home to over 500 Bengal tigers, who killed from 50-250 people per year in India and Bangladesh. Tiger attacks in the Sundarbans is the best example of human interaction and conflict between local people and wild animals. The Man Eating Tigers of Sundarbans and Human wildlife Conflict rate has dropped significantly due to better management techniques.
Solutions to Human Wildlife Conflicts:
(i) Electricity: To deter wildlife from human dominated areas, conservationists commonly use electricity to create a lasting negative impression. Solar powered electric fences keep crop-raiding elephants out of fields.
(ii) WiIdlife Corridors: Wildlife corridors, areas of preserved native habitat human dominated regions, provide wildlife with a safe pathway as they travel between larger areas of intact habitat.
(iii) Mapping: Using GPS tracking collars and GIS mapping software, researchers can identify hot spots where human-wildlife conflict is likely to occur. These hotspots often coincide with developed regions at the edge of national parks, but the data from tracked animals can reveal individual movement patterns that may be unexpected.
(iv) Ecotourism: Ecotourism can combat this reaction by assigning a monetary value to wildlife. Ecotourism outfits owned and operated by local communities, rather than corporations, can uplift entire impoverished regions by providing additional job opportunities and a boost for the local economy.
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