Govt banks on Indo-German project to halt humanwildlife conflicts

NEW DELHI: The Centre is banking on an Indo-German Human-Wildlife
conflict mitigation project to prevent a recurrence of the controversial
killing of tigress Avni in Maharashtra and deaths of seven elephants by
electrocution in Odisha last month.

The Indo-German project aims to provide technical support at the national
level and in selected states for effective implementation of conflict
mitigation measures so that both human and animal lives could be saved
by shifting from 'conflict' to 'co-existence' mode.

"We have been doing pilots in three states - Uttarakhand, West Bengal
and Karnataka - under the Indo-German project. Three sites have been
selected keeping in mind tiger and elephant population in those areas," said S Sathyakumar, scientist at Dehradun-based

Wildlife Institute of India (WII).

Kodagu forest circle in Karnataka, Terai Arc Landscape in Uttarakhand and Gorumara wildlife division in north Bengal are three
areas where the government agencies have been working in technical cooperation with the German government.
Sathyakumar, who deals with the Indo-German project, told TOI on Saturday that the objective is to frame guidelines and
standard operating procedures (SOPs) so that humans and wildlife could co-exist.

"The idea is to prevent conflict wherever possible through taking enabling measures and creating awareness among people
living around the wildlife habitat and their path of movement from one region to other," he said.

The success of the pilot project, signed last year, will be replicated at the national level, covering protected areas, national
parks and wildlife sanctuaries.

An official note says that the project focuses on three output areas - development of action plan to reduce human wildlife
conflict, pilot application of a holistic approach and instruments for mitigation of conflicts and facilitating capacity development
of key stakeholders.

Figures, compiled by the Union environment ministry, show that more than 1,600 people were killed due to elephant and tiger
attacks across the country between 2014-15 and 2017-18. While 1,557 people were killed due to elephant attacks, 49 were
killed due to tiger attacks during the period.

According to WWF-India, tigers tend to avoid people, but can attack in self defence if they are taken by surprise or if they are
with their young ones. Such incidences may sometimes lead to humans being mauled or killed by chance.

It says, "Occasionally, an aged, sick or injured tiger that is unable to hunt its natural prey may also kill a human being and feed
on the body. A few such tigers may resort to killing human beings intermittently since man is an easy prey. But not all aged, sick
or injured tigers become man-eaters."

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