HUMAN-ANIMAL CONFLICT

Human-wildlife conflict is when encounters between humans and wildlife lead to negative results, such as loss of property, livelihoods, and even life.
Defensive and retaliatory killing may eventually drive these species to extinction.
These encounters not only result in suffering for both people and wildlife immediately impacted by the conflict; they can also have a global reach, with groups such as sustainable development agencies and businesses feeling its residual effects.
The scope of the issue is significant and truly global, but we are nowhere near being able to address it at the scale needed. Elephants are not only a cultural icon in India and throughout Asia, but they also help to maintain the integrity of their forest
Steady inroads into elephant habitats to meet the needs of an increasing human population and economic development have resulted in significant loss and fragmentation of elephant habitat
Anthropogenic pressures have also contributed to the extreme degradation of large parts of the elephant habitat
Human-elephant conflicts are becoming increasingly common leading to death and injury of human beings and retaliatory killings of elephants
The elephant herd is led by the oldest and largest female cow known as the matriarch. She is usually the one who was the most closely related to the previous matriarch.

2. Rise in Human-Wildlife conflict

As human populations and demand for space continue to grow, people and wildlife are increasingly interacting and competing for resources, which can lead to increased human-wildlife conflict.
Along with other threats, the human-wildlife conflict has driven the decline of once-abundant species and is pushing others to the brink of extinction.
Decreased prey base caused by poaching of herbivores has resulted in carnivores moving out of the forest in search of prey
But the human-wildlife conflict issue has far-reaching impacts beyond the wildlife and communities immediately affected by it.
Habitat disturbance in the wild due to human intervention.
Habitat destruction through development projects, deforestation overgrazing by livestock and expansion of human settlements and agriculture.
If not effectively managed, the human-wildlife conflict has the potential to negatively affect these activities and conservation much more broadly.

3. Consequences of Human-Animal Conflict

4. Steps taken to curb human-animal conflict

Rubble Wall demarcation of the protected area
Solar and minor voltage electric fences across the habitats.
Hanging fences
Elephant-proof trenches
Involvement of the local community or the stakeholder is most important for the effectiveness of barriers
Beehive and Chili fences
Forest Departments are adopting fences as a biological elephant barricade which is made of thorny plant varieties.
Radio collaring of elephants is used for tracking of movement patterns of tagged elephants and is often the best method used in wide-ranging species like elephants
Alignment of the elephant corridor
Community guarding is a quite successful aspect in Odisha

5. Steps were taken to protect the elephant population

Project Elephant-Project Elephant was launched in 1992 by the Government of India Ministry of Environment and Forests to provide financial and technical support to wildlife management efforts by states for their free-ranging populations of wild Asian Elephants.
Elephant corridor-Elephant corridors are linear, narrow, natural habitat linkages that allow elephants to move between secure habitats without being disturbed by humans. To secure a future for wild elephants we must ensure their uninterrupted movement between key habitats.
Haathi Mere Saathi-Hathi Mere Saathi’ is an initiative by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India in collaboration with the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), to generate groundswell support from various stakeholders for the country’s National Heritage Animal.

The Campaign mascot Raju - The Union Ministry of Environment and Forest has launched a nationwide campaign Gaj Yatra to protect elephants to aid elephant conservation measures from various stakeholders at the ground level

Monitoring illegal killing of elephants (MIKE) program-The Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) programme is an international collaboration that measures the levels, trends and causes of elephant mortality, thereby providing an information base to support international decision-making related to the conservation of elephants in Asia and Africa.

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