Man Wildlife Conflicts

The problem of Man Elephant conflict is much severe in the districts of Hassan and Madikeri where large herds of elephants can be seen roaming and marauding the farms erraticly in or near the quality beas damaging the valuable artless crops. At times there have been detriment of human lives which scarce accentuates the problem taking this conflict to an entirely untried level. Natur all in ally race can tolerate the loss of agricultural crops but not the loss of their family members.But and then who is responsible for all this? It is we who have intruded into their territory, converting the sets into agricultural farms, growing crops and inviting the elephants to our doorsteps to have a go at it and have their stomach fill. Its we who have fragmented their habitat by fashioning roads, dams and canals. We have h championycombed their habitat by our so called developmental activities alimentation into their homelands and this appetite of ours for their aras is only whe n increasing day by day with the deform human population.The elephants in these areas seem to have a very peculiar habit. First they have their stomach fill. After that they roam around in search of arak which is usually being disboulder clayed in local bhatties. The arrack or the distil waste gives them a nice kick and these boozy elephants are responsible for the loss of human lives. The tools employed by the forest department like bursting of crackers, gun guesss or fire torches are too vulgar to stop or s attending extraneous the marauding pack of inebriated elephants.The Man-Leopard conflict is much visible in the transition zone betwixt dry plain lands and the green hilly areas. In the Chikmagalur district it is more a problem in the dry taluqa of Kadur particularly bordering villages of Kadur and Chikmagalur taluqa where the dry pamphlet ends. Kadur is the place which earned a bad name for it about 10 years back. It was here where large bit of pumas had to be shot and killed by employing and saving so called sharp shooters from all over the state in search of an unreal so called man-eater panther.The end result of all this hunting spree was that every day and night several panthers were shot and brought to the post mortem table, post mortem was carried out and the killed panther was declared innocent as no human remains could be detected inside till finally some human hair remnants were detected in one and then only this shooting spree came to a halt. It is debatable whether it was very required to kill such a large number of panthers which is an be species but perhaps the department had no means to identify the rrant panther and hence large number of panthers had to be killed in search of that illusive wayward one. Moreover at times one is driven by the urge to be seen as trying his best. Probably this urge opened the floodgates and gradually people took the law into their admit hands thinking that wherefore to wait for the forest de partment when they can themselves teach panthers a lesson. aforesaid(prenominal) happened some time back. A family of a m new(prenominal) panther and its ii grown up cubs was seen in the vicinity of a village.They hunted a calf and ate it partially before they were chased away by the villagers. Once they left, the carcass of the calf was nicely poisoned. When the m opposite and the cub returned unsuspectingly next day, they consumed the remains and in the process died themselves. Leopards by nature angle to stray into the habitations in search of their kill. Their natural prey is becoming lofty in the forests and the omnipresent cattle and dogs in the vicinity of the villages on the interference fringe of forest brings them in close conflict of the human beings.In some other areas also few panthers have had to lose their lives being caught in the snares. These snares are rigid in the barbed wire fence of coffee estates, not necessarily by the estate owners but at times by thei r labour in order to catch wild boars or little animals. However it is the panthers and Sambars who have had to pay the price with their lives for their adventure in to the estates. The Man- tiger conflicts are by and large restricted to the high forests and the coffee estates in the vicinity of forests in Chikmagalur district.These conflicts also arise due to depredation by tigers on the cattle or getting entangled in the snares fixed in the fencings of the estates. Few tigers have been killed due to such snares. In Chikmagalur, Hassan, Kodagu and other Western Ghat districts Coffee plantations are an integral part of the topography. The conditions available in the coffee estates make them very close to look like forest. social movement of cattle in such areas makes them ideal hunting grounds for the tigers and leopards bringing them in direct conflict with the villagers.Moreover there are large number of authorized and unauthorized muzzle loading guns available making it very di fficult for the wild life to survive. Primary reason for all these conflicts is atomisation of the wild habitat. Whereas few patches have been brought under the Conservation network by declaring them as National Parks or Sanctuaries, about 85-90% of the forest areas are still outside this network. While there can be no doubt that establishing this network has contributed significantly to wildlife conservation. But real problem is that flush these net whole caboodle are also fragmented.Whereas total concentration in these parks and sanctuaries is on wildlife protection making the conditions ideal for wildlife, but what about the wildlife staying in forest areas outside these networks. Wildlife knows no boundaries. Creation of ideal conditions in sanctuaries has helped wildlife to multiply promptly but where is the supernumerary habitat required to take care of the additional population of animals, which tries to flow over to the adjoining areas only to get killed. This is particu larly so with regard to the wild animals having territorial tendencies.There is need to have a continuous conservation network with sufficient area and resources to take care of the progeny. Right now almost no effort is being do to take up wild life related management works outside the parks and sanctuaries. The lands outside the parks and sanctuaries (even inside also) are evermore under threat of encroachment. Honeycombing of the forestlands has already reached extreme. The tools employed by the government in reducing the Man and Wildlife Conflicts are highly insufficient and hence not producing desired results.If we think that paying a few hundred or thousands Rupees to a person as compensation for crop damages by elephants or for a cattle killed by a leopard or tiger would save our wildlife from getting poisoned or shot, then it is nothing but our shortsightedness. compensate this so-called wildlife compensation is paid to him after making innumerable trips to the implicate d office. The farmer has to forego his earnings for each day he has to get word the office, he has to pay from his pocket for the bus charge and has to undergo corporal strain .And what he gets is just few hundred rupees. Such hardships dissuade him and in the process he gets encouraged to take the law into his own hands and to settle scores with his tormentor- the wildlife. There are only losers on both the sides. The Forest officials are also at times not acting in tandem. There is no coordination among the adjoining units. Particularly in case of elephant herds movements between the adjoining units it can be seen. Everybody wants to drive away the herds to another adjoining unit without giving any thought.It only complicates the problems. essential of the hour is to have a stock of the real problem. And then only solutions can be found. We tend to take each problem in a routine manner. There is a tendency to leave the things to spurn subordinates. The powers that be have to take everybody into confidence, discuss the issue threadbare and then have to take a conscious decision. A conscious polity decision need not be essentially sweet and desire by all but it may herald a new era where people and wildlife both can coexist beneficially.