Human-wildlife conflicts

Human-wildlife conflict is one of the growing threats to the existence of many species in the planet. Similarly, it is also a significant threat to local communities; particularly those are living adjacent to the forests areas as well as national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. To overcome this problem local communities and government support is needed to minimize the threats to the wildlife, human, livestock, properties and their crops, and vice-versa. As a result of this, the local support has declined for conservation due to lacks of Government support to resolve the problem of destroying the property and crops of local communities. Moreover, the human-wildlife conflict, particularly in Uttarakhand has increased the migration from hilly areas to the plan areas. Small holder farmers of the mountain regions of Uttarakhand are largely affected due to human-wildlife conflicts. On the other hand, human population and their demand have expanded, and natural habitats shrinks, people and animals are increasingly coming into conflict over living space and food.

For instance, Baboon in South Africa (Cape town province), Wild Boer, Monkeys, elephants, wild beers destroying crops, and leopard and tiger killing livestock, even people in India, particularly adjacent to the forest areas. This is gradually affecting the livelihood of farmers and conservation priorities of the government. People lose their crops, livestock, property and sometimes their lives. The animals, many of them are threatened or endangered in conservation perspective, are often killed in retaliation or to prevent future conflicts. This conflict is always increasing affecting many species for their conservation and existence perspective in the world. In addition, climate change phenomena can probably exacerbate this problem further. Human-wildlife conflicts required an urgent attention for conservation, damage control and life-saving perspectives.

By:- Dr. Yashwant Singh Rawat
Forestry Department
Uttaranchal (P.G.) College of Biomedical Sciences and Hospital