Human¬Animal conflict

Human­Animal conflict

Why in news:

• In the latest in a series of wild elephant attacks in Kerala, Subair Kutty, a daily worker, was attacked by a rouge elephant at Sulthan Bathery town adjacent to the Wayanad wildlife Sanctuary.

More about the news and background:

• The same elephant further charged at a bus and destroyed crops grown by three farmers on the same day.
• Meanwhile, a herd of elephants raided a field of 500 plantains belonging to two farmers at Kallur, some 10 kms away from Sulthan Bathery.
• After a three­day search, the elephant, codenamed Pandalur Makhna­2 or PM2, was caught and has since been relocated to the elephant kraal at Muthanga in Wayanad.
• The chief wildlife warden issued an order to capture PM2 and to convert the elephant into a trained one, at the elephant kraal at Muthanga.
• Officials say two rogue elephants were captured and tamed in the kraal in the last decade.

Increasing conflicts:

• Crop raid by elephants, cattle­lifting by leopards and tigers, and attacks on humans have also been widely reported.

• “An analysis of the threats to biodiversity conservation and management of natural resources in various forest divisions of Kerala shows that human­wildlife conflict is a threat existing almost everywhere, but more frequently in the northern region and particularly in Wayanad,”.
• The issue has always been there, but its frequency has gone up lately.

Reasons of the increasing Human- Animal conflicts:

• Increase in human population in such areas, Habitat loss and fragmentation suffered by wild animals and
• Change in cropping patterns adopted by farmers.
• An increase in the intrusion of people into wildlife habitats and the change in land use patterns by cultivators have exacerbated the trouble.
• Furthermore, these cultivators, who are often development­oriented and believe that the prime job of the forest department is to protect their interests, are less tolerant of crop raids by wild animals.

Way forward:

• Both government and society should work together as a single entity and alter perspectives towards wildlife and human existence in the forest and on its fringes.
• Parallelly, forest conservation must be made more effective, through participatory programmes involving the people.
• Bee fences can be deployed around the fields to reduce the intrusion of elephants into the fields by taking the project REHAB as the model.

Syllabus: Prelims + Mains; GS3 – Environment and Ecology