'Can you do family planning of nilgai, sir?'

Infochange
August 4, 2008


All of us hate the idea of hunting or killing wildlife, writes Ashish Kothari. But with villagers across India facing increasing attacks by wild animals, conservationists must realise that in the interests of both wildlife conservation and people’s livelihood security we must look beyond the narrow ethics of individual animal protection to a broader one of survival of species and ecosystems

“Please do something about the monkey menace, beta.” Bachani Devi, former head of the women’s committee of Jardhargaon village, Uttarakhand, had a quiet look of desperation. She had seen plenty of tough situations in her 70-plus years, including having to fight off wood thieves and miners, but she seemed helpless in the face of this new problem. Jardhargaon, like many other villages in the region, was facing increasing damage to its crops by wild animals. Villagers repeatedly mentioned monkeys and wild pigs as the biggest problems, but damage was also reported by bears, goral, parakeets, and other animals.

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