23 Deforestation and Man – Animal Conflicts in India

Ashutosh Jaiswal

1. Introduction

1.1 Deforestation and man-animal conflict

1.2 Reasons for human-animal conflict

1.3 Man-animal conflict in India

1.3.1 Man-leopard Conflict

1.3.2 Man-elpehant Conflict

1.3.3 Man-tiger Conflict

1.4 Solution to the Problem

1.5 Conclusion

Objectives

Ø   Deforestation and man-animal conflict

Ø   How deforestation results into man-animal conflict

Ø   Spatial dimension of man-animal conflict

Ø   Possible ways to reduce man-animal conflict

Ø   Main animals responsible for man-animal conflict

1 Introduction

Forests are diverse ecosystems that house an estimated 80% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. Rainforests are considered to be the most biodiverse forests, housing approximately 50% of the Earth’s animal species. As important as forests are both environmentally and economically, many of our global forests are suffering from deforestation. Forests are often cut or burned to make way for farming or cattle grazing. Commercial logging also contributes to deforestation, and forests are cut down for development.

Deforestation is the conversion of forest to an alternative permanent non-forested land use such as agriculture, grazing or urban development (van Kooten and Bulte, 2000). Deforestation is primarily a concern for the developing countries of the tropics (Myers, 1994) as it is shrinking areas of the tropical forests (Barraclough and Ghimire, 2000) causing loss of biodiversity and enhancing the greenhouse effect (Angelsen et al., 1999). On an average of 13 million hectares were deforested globally each year between 2000-2010.

Deforestation in developing nations is primarily due to a competitive global economy, where poorer countries sell their natural resources to pay their debts to wealthy countries. The poor in these countries also utilize the land for farming and sustenance, and these pressures continue to increase as population levels increase.

1.1 Deforestation and man-animal conflict

Clear-cutting can be particularly devastating to forest ecosystems, especially in rainforest ecosystems, where the clearcut land is much more vulnerable to soil erosion when no trees remain to hold the soil in place. Deforestation can lead to a direct loss of wildlife habitat, as well as a general degradation of their habitat. The removal of trees and other types of vegetation reduces available food, shelter, and breeding habitat. Wildlife habitats can become fragmented, where native species must live on remaining habitat islands that are surrounded by disturbed land that is being used for agriculture and other uses.Habitat fragments may be too small to maintain viable populations of animals, and an animal living in one population may no longer be able to freely breed with individuals in other populations. Animals may not be able to find adequate shelter, water, and food to survive within remaining habitat. Animals may also encounter dangerous situations when they attempt to migrate between habitat fragments, such as increased human-wildlife conflicts and being hit by vehicles. With increased habitat edge, wildlife may experience an increased vulnerability to predation, poaching, wind, sunlight, invasion of exotic plant and animal species into remaining forest habitat, and other factors such as natural disasters that were not as much of a threat prior to the deforestation event³.

Human-wildlife conflict refers to interaction between wild animals and people and resultant negative impact on people or their resources, or wild animals or their habitat. Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) occurs when wildlife requirements overlap with those of human populations, creating costs both to residents and wild animals (IUCN World Parks Congress. Mananimal conflict has been in existence for as long as humans have existed and wild animals and people have shared same landscapes and resources (Lamarque). Human-carnivore conflict is now very common global phenomenon in rural areas and has become common on urban fringe in both developing and developed countries (Dickman). With increasing human population and pressure on forest areas, humanwildlife interaction and resultant conflict is also increasing (Zubiri & Switzer). It occurs when growing human populations overlap with established wildlife territories, increasing interaction of man and wild animals and thus resulting in increased levels of conflict.

    1.2 Reasons for Human – Animal Conflict

The human – animal conflict is a serious problem, current trends show that we human beings are being insensitive to the value of wild life and to the importance of living in harmony with nature. Typically, the human-animal conflict can be classified into four types:

i. competition for space

ii. crop raiding and destruction

iii. attacking the livestock

iv. injury or death of humans.

Contemporary science, however, tells us that human beings are not part of the carnivore diet. That however, does not rule out the fact that tigers, leopards, lions, and bears could attack people or damage property. Crop raiding has been an issue since agriculture has been carried out by clearing off lands. Most animals, especially large mammals have huge home ranges and are continuously on the move across their territory. Even food is easily available in the form of crops. It has been seen that radio-collared elephants move from West Bengal to Assam and back on a regular basis. Asiatic Lions move over hundreds of kilometres from Gir Sanctuary to other areas outside.

The crucial question that needs to be addressed here is—why do animals raid crops or why do leopards attack livestock? According to the World Database on Protected Areas, 2012, only 13 per cent of earth’s surface belongs to the global network of protected areas. These areas are, in fact, the last resort for many large and threatened mammals. With the protected areas largely surrounded by human population, the conflict situation has risen in recent times. As fragmentation of land increases, animals come in direct conflict with people. When the conflict occurs, it happens under tough situations. During this time, animals respond in a frightened manner—they attack and flee! Studies show that such an attack is also propelled by people’s way of trying to chase away the animal.

An important source of conflict lies in the competition between growing human populations and wildlife for the same declining resources. The transformation of forests, savannah, wetlands and other ecosystems into agricultural or urban areas as a consequence of increasing demand for land, food production, energy, water and raw materials, has led to a dramatic loss of wildlife habitats.

1.3 Man –animal Conflicts in India

Man-animal conflicts are common in various parts of the country. Incidents of man – animal conflict are reported from States/Union Territories of the country. In India, wild elephants probably kill far more people than tiger, leopard or lion. But, surprising ly, human conflict involving leopard draws great amount of public attention compared to other animals. Other carnivores – tigers, lions and wolves which have been known for causing a large number of human deaths in the past, are now mostly restricted in range and their impact is not as widespread as that of the leopard. Animals like elephant, tiger, leopard, wild dog, monkey, wild boar; Nilgai, bear, sambar deer etc. are major animals involved in human-animal conflict in India.

In India, man-animal conflict is seen across the country in a variety of forms, including monkey menace in the urban areas, crop raiding by ungulates and wild pigs, depredation by elephants, and cattle and human killing by tigers and leopards. Damage to agricultural crops and property, killing of livestock and human beings are some of the worst forms of man-animal conflict.The increase in man-animal conflict is likely due to the greater resilience and adaptability of wild animals in face of their shrinking habitats, which allow them to live successfully close to human habitation.Degradation of habitats, depletion of the natural prey base, changing crop patterns, suitability of man modified habitats to wild animals, presence of stray dogs and cattle in forest fringe areas etc are other reasons. Crops like sugarcane and tea estates are reported to provide excellent cover for wild animals.

1.3.1 Man- Leopard Conflicts

Leopard attacks on humans are regularly reported only in India, The Panthera pardus or the leopards kill more humans in India than all other carnivores. Human–leopard conflict regions of the country are West Bengal, Maharashtra and Assam where most of the deadly leopard attack incident happened. The Corbett National Park of Uttarakhand is famous for notable man-eaters leopard, responsible for at least 400 attacks on humans. Leopard of Panar, Leopard of Rudraprayag and Leopard of the Mulher Valley have claimed thousand of human and cattle lives. Leopards are still one of the most dangerous animal in India and responsible for many human life alone among the other four big cats of India.

Human-carnivore conflict in Kashmir region of Jammu & Kashmir state in India is a conservation concern that increasingly threatens the continued existence of some carnivore species like leopard and Black bear. The increasing population with subsequent encroachment on wild land has resulted in close proximity between humans and wild carnivores which most often results in a negative outcome for humans, wildlife or both. The need for alleviating this conflict has become a challenging job for the government. During 2010 – 2012 there were about 235 deaths and 650 injuries due to these conflicts. The injured persons were mainly from different areas of Kashmir in close vicinity of protected areas and forests. People in such conflict prone areas of Kupwara, Lolab, Handwara, Baramulla, Tangmarg, Shopian, Ganderbal, Anantnag and Srinagar lose their crops, livestock, property and sometimes their lives. The animals like leopard and black bear are often injured or killed in retaliation. During summer and autumn, bears are on prowl owing to availability of fruit and crop in adjoining localities of forests and protected areas. The leopard attacks have been reported round the year. Man-animal conflict has been in existence for as long as humans have existed and wild animals and people have shared same landscapes and resources (Lamarque et al).

Figure 1.Man- Leopard Conflicts

    1.3.2 Man – Elephant Conflicts

In India, the documented loss of human life to elephant attacks averages over 400 people, annually. The people who succumb to these injuries are those who belong to the weaker socio-economic strata of society. The statistics reveals that the scale of casualties in the clash between elephants and humans continues to be high in the state of Odisha. There have been a lot of elephant casualties and human deaths in the past five years because of man-elephant conflicts. The number of elephant casualties in the state in the past five years (2011 – 2015) is 393, while 300 people died in jumbo attacks during this period. While poachers were responsible for a majority of elephant killings, a number of deaths were also caused by high-tension wires. As per official source, hunters and wildlife smugglers had been responsible for the killing of 28 elephants in the past five years, nine died of poisoning and 60 animals were killed in road and train accidents.Electrocution has claimed the lives of more than 50 elephants during this period. In the past five years, the elephants have damaged 4,405 houses and crops in 69,071 acres. Environmentalists attributed the phenomenon of human-elephant conflicts to increasing deforestation and habitat erosion, which is driving jumbos into human habitations. As per Green Activist, Bijay Mishra, “Forest cover has been disappearing at an alarming rate, thanks to human interference, especially the industrial activities in the forests. This forces elephants, starved of food and water, to raid villages near the forests.”

Between 2006 and 2016, wild elephants have killed 785 people in the state of Assam, while 225 pachyderms felt victim to poaching, speeding trains, poisoning, electrocution, etc. between 2001 and 2014. A Wildlife Expert, Bibhab Talukdar says“The man-elephant conflict is on the rise in Assam. Factors like rapid loss of dense forests, infrastructure projects falling in elephant habitats and rising frustration of villagers due to loss of property and lives have contributed to it.” Unable to find enough resources to sustain in their old habitats, the pachyderms venture out close to human settlements and damage farms and property, and attack people. To save themselves, people try to chase away the wild animals with drums, sticks, spears and fire-torches. Some even resort to poisoning and electrocuting them.

Elephant habitat located at northern West Bengal in India is part of the Eastern Himalaya Biodiversity Hotspot which is characterized by a high degree of fragmentation. The heavy fragmentation of this habitat has resulted into an intense human-elephant conflict causing not only in loss of agricultural crops but also human and elephant lives. Mortality of about 50 persons and 20 elephants was reported due to these severe human-elephant conflicts from this hotspot area annually (Sukumar et al., 2003; Mangave, 2004).

Figure 2. Man- Elephant Conflicts

Elephant is one of the holy animals in Kerala but due to elephant attack some 500 people are killed by each year. There are many incidents of elephant attacks occurred in the villages of Kerala and other parts of India.

1.3.3 Man – Tiger Conflicts

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.

Figure 3. Man- Tiger Conflicts

     In a paper titled ‘The hidden dimensions of human– wildlife conflict: Health impacts and opportunity costs’ published in Biological Conservation, the authors address the hidden impacts of human–animal conflict. When the breadwinner of the family is killed or injured, the burden of the family passes on to women and younger children. When a woman is a victim, the children take over and this affects their education as they are unable to go to school. A study in North-East found that when men were injured or killed, it led to increased debts and poverty.

1.4 Solution to the Problem

The human–wildlife conflict may be resolved if there is a shift in the understanding of stakeholders, including policy-makers, scientists, media, and the local people. Even today, we expect wildlife to be confined to ‘only’ forests. However, the fact is that this protected area constitutes just five per cent of the area in India (4.87%to be precise) as on November 2014, according to the National Wildlife Database Cell, Wildlife Institute of India. How can we then confine animals within this space? And larger animals are biologically programmed to travel far distances. Villages and households in heavy-risk areas can be educated on preventing and mitigating conflicts. Also, these need to be reported to the authorities in an organized and timely manner. Studies indicate that there is need for a monitoring system which will record and disperse information on such conflicts. Such an approach can build up the development of a risk database and live warning and monitoring systems. Large carnivores pose a challenge when it comes to conflict. As top predators, they need healthy prey base for sustaining themselves. When natural prey populations decline, they look at alternatives like livestock or people. If large carnivores such as lions, leopards, and tigers are to survive in the future, then it is critical that every effort should be made to promote co-existence and prevent negative interactions. This is a goal that is tough in the world where humans dominate. So, how do we maintain this balance?

While acknowledging the gravity of the situation, maintain that both short-term and long-term measures are being initiated to ease the problem. While protection and regeneration of some critical habitat is a must in the long run, our immediate thrust has also been on reducing both human and elephant casualties in the conflict. The short-term measures include use of fire crackers and trained kunkis (domesticated elephants) to ward off raiding wild herds. The villagers are also being educated on elephant behaviour so that they do not confront an elephant aggressively when it is sighted near human settlements. The compensations for crop and property damage immediately for checking retaliatory killings should be provided.

Conservationists feel that unless the remaining forests and corridors are protected with immediate effect, the elephants and the rich biodiversity of the landscape could very soon sink into oblivion.

The Government is giving highest priority to mitigate the problem. It supplements the financial resources available with the States/ Union Territory Governments for the purpose by providing limited funds under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes of ‘Project Tiger’, ‘Project Elephant’ and ‘Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats’. Payment of ex – gratia to the victims of wild animals is the responsibility of the concerned State/ Union Territory Governments.The Government has initiated a number of steps in this regard including the following:

i. Providing assistance to State Governments for improvement of habitat to augment food and water availability and to reduce movement of animals from the forests to the habitations.

ii. Encouraging State Governments for creation of a network of Protected Areas and wildlife corridors for conservation of wildlife.

iii. Awareness programmes to sensitize the people about the Do’s and Don’ts to minimize conflicts.

iv. Training programmes for forest staff and police to address the problems of human – wildlife conflicts.

v. Issuance of guidelines to the State Governments for management of human -leopard conflict.

vi. Providing technical and financial support for development of necessary infrastructure and support facilities for immobilization of problematic animals through tranquilization, their translocation to the rescue centres or release back to the natural habitats.

vii. Providing assistance to State Governments for construction of boundary walls and solar fences around the sensitive areas to prevent the wild animal attacks.

viii. Supplementing State Government resources for payment of ex -gratia to the people for injuries and loss of life in case of wild animal attacks.

ix. Empowering the Chief Wildlife Warden of the State/Union Territories to permit hunting of such problematic animals under the provisions of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.

x. Providing assistance to the State Governments for eco-development activities in villages around Protected Areas to elicit cooperation of local community in management of the Protected Areas.

xi. Encouraging and supporting involvement of the research and academic institutions and leading voluntary organizations having expertise in managing human -wildlife conflict situations.

1.5 Conclusion

The problem of man-animal conflict in general is not only harmful to human life, but also for the ecosystem. It would disturb the ecological balance because if for example more lions are killed then number of dears would increase and which will result in deforestation.

References

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