Date: 22/02/2023

Relevance: GS-3: Biodiversity protection and related laws; Man-Animal Conflict; Animal Welfare.

Key Phrases: Human-Animal Conflicts, Nagarhole National Park, Animal Welfare Board, Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, Loss of Life, Crop Damage, Leopard Census.

Context:

• Karnataka has been grappling with an increase in man-animal conflicts, which have brought wildlife and forest conservation issues to the fore and led to questions about the State’s response to them.
  • Earlier this month, a 70-year-old man belonging to the Jenu Kuruba community and his 12-year-old grandson were killed in tiger attacks on the boundary of the Nagarahole National Park near Kutta in Kodagu district.
  • Four human deaths took place in human-leopard conflicts in south Karnataka over a span of a few months.

Key Highlights:

• As per the study carried by conservation biologist Sanjay Gubbi and his team, the leopard population in the Karnataka state is around 2,500.
  • More than 50% of the human-leopard conflict takes place in five districts- Ramanagara, Tumakuru, Mandya, Mysore and Hassan.

Human-Animal Conflict:

• Human-wildlife conflict is when encounters between humans and wildlife lead to negative results, such as loss of property, livelihoods, and even life.

Reason of rising conflicts:

• As human populations and demand for space continue to grow, people and wildlife are increasingly interacting and competing for resources, which can lead to increased human-wildlife conflict.
• When the wildlife population was increasing due to protection measures, the area under forest cover should have been expanded by creating buffer zones.
  • But the converse happened in Karnataka.
• Forests have either shrunk or been disturbed with the government clearing infrastructure projects by diverting forest land for non-forestry purposes.
  • Between 2020-21 and 2021-22, when human-animal conflict reached a new high, more than 450 hectares of forest land were diverted for as many as 39 projects including mining, road construction, irrigation, windmills and railway lines.
  • The total land area under forest cover in 2012-13 was 43,356.47 sq km, or 22.61% of the State’s land area.
    • This has declined to 4,0591.97 sq km, or 21.16% of the land area, in 2021-22.
• The state government has also opposed the Union Environment Ministry’s notification on Ecologically Sensitive Areas in the Western Ghats that could help protect green cover.

Consequences of conflict:

• Defensive and retaliatory killing may eventually drive these species to extinction.
• These encounters not only result in suffering for both people and wildlife immediately impacted by the conflict; they can also have a global reach, with groups such as sustainable development agencies and businesses feeling its residual effects.
• According to the Forest Department, during 2020-21, there were 24,740 cases related to crop damage by wild animals; 3,019 cases of cattle kill; and 36 human deaths in the State.
  • The compensation paid in all the cases put together was ₹21.64 crore.
• In 2021-22, cases of crop damage caused by wild animals increased to 31,225; the number of cattle killed went up to 4,052; and 40 human deaths were reported.
  • The compensation paid exceeded ₹27.4 crore.
• In the current year, over ₹20 crore has already been paid by way of compensation. And once the pending applications are processed, this figure is expected to cross ₹40 crore.
• The cost of the conflict, both in terms of deaths and crop damage, is being borne by the people living on the forest fringes and in villages.
  • This means there could be less local support for wildlife conservation.
• If not effectively managed, human-wildlife conflict has the potential to negatively affect these activities and conservation much more broadly.

Steps taken by Government:

• The government authorities of the state have thought of mitigatory plans to reduce conflicts.
  • These include fencing villages abutting forest boundaries with discarded rail fences, and relocating elephants and tigers from conflict zones.
• To address Human-Leopard conflicts, the Forest Department is now toying with the idea of creating two or three separate enclosures or rescue centres.
  • Each of these will have the capacity to house 250 leopards that have been tranquillised and captured in conflict zones.
    • Nearly 130 leopards have been captured from conflict zones in Karnataka between April 2022 and January this year alone.

Way Forward:

• Though mitigatory initiatives are imperative, some believe that they only address the symptoms and not the cause.
• This is because the increase in conflicts and the rise in human deaths are perceived to be a direct fallout of the government’s conservation measures on the one hand and development policies on the other, which are at odds with each other.
  • As a consequence, the environment gets short shrift.
• The area under forest cover should be expanded by creating buffer zones.
  • Such areas can act as sinks to absorb the rise in animal population and provide connectivity for animal migration.
• Procuring plantations and land abutting forest areas can augment and strengthen the buffer zone and help reduce conflicts.
• If such forest land conversion policies, which are detrimental to the environment, are not reversed, the impact of mitigation measures to reduce conflicts will be neutralised and human-animal conflicts will only escalate in the future.
• In order to reduce human-wildlife conflict, we must reassess the relationship—and especially the direct interactions—between people and wildlife to improve our coexistence in the future.

Conclusion:

• There is a need to adopt approaches that identify and address the deeper, underlying causes of conflict while developing systemic, context-specific solutions with affected communities as active and equal participants in the process.

Source:  The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. What are the major reasons and consequences of the rising human-animal conflicts? Also, suggest some progressive measures to address these issues. (250 Words).