‘Killing animals not the solution’

‘Killing animals not the solution’

Pune: Human-wildlife conflict is defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) as “any interaction between humans and wildlife that results in negative impacts on human social, economic or cultural life, on the conservation of wildlife populations, or on the environment.” 

Man-animal conflicts are common in various parts of the country. In India, wild elephants probably kill far more people than tigers, leopards or lions. But surprisingly, human conflict involving leopards draws more public attention compared to other animals. 

“Pune district, especially Junnar taluka, gained a notorious reputation for maximum numbers of attacks on human by leopards. It all started in 2001 when out of nowhere, a leopard killed five people, injuring others,” said retired forest officer Prabhakar Kukdolkar. 

He said, “According to the animal census of 1996, there were 20 to 25 leopards in the forest surrounding the area. But in 2001, the number shockingly doubled. The sharp rise can be attributed to the Bhimashankar sugar factory, which came up in the area in 1992, which also led the farmers to cultivate their land for sugarcane.” 

“Leopard was known to be an animal living on the edge of forest. Similarly, due to scarcity of food, water and human disturbance, the animal entered into this sugar field. He found the field to be safe for the cubs and thus settled down there,” said Kukdolkar. “A sugarcane farmer goes to the field on regular basis for first few months. Later, his number of rounds decrease, providing a safe zone (food, water and cubs’ safety) for the animal,” he added. 

If Junnar is plagued by problems with leopards, Beed district has maximum numbers of wild pigs, destroying the farms. Jalna district finds itself in trouble due to rising population of antelopes and monkeys, Kolhapur for crocodiles and Sangli and other districts for bison. 

“Laws are man-made, hence there is likelihood of anthropocentric bias towards man and rights of wild animals often tend to be of secondary importance,” said Ashok Khadse, Director, Education, Training and Research Institute, Forest Department, Chandrapur. He said, “The laws in the Forest Department are old and wildlife management needs urgent change. The problems in Nagpur and Kolhapur are different. And they need to be tackled differently. We just cannot rely on the present rules to act for the benefit of both the wild and animal life.”
 
Khadse said, “The Forest Department should take a proactive, precautionary and a preventive role in this man and wild conflict.” Kukdolkar too opined the same. He said, “We need to have coexistence. Killing the animals is not the solution.” 

Experts say that the wildlife-human conflicts are a serious obstacle to wildlife conservation and the livelihoods of people worldwide are becoming more prevalent as human population increases, development expands, and global climate changes and other human and environmental factors put people and wildlife in greater direct competition for a shrinking resource base. State governments carry out various methods right from culling and sterilisation drives to awareness campaigns to resolve the issue. 

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