Opinion Living with animals – the challenges and the solution

At a meeting of the National Board for Wildlife (NBW) on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged a difficult challenge and announced a solution. The PM, the Board’s ex-officio chairperson, spoke of setting up a centre for the effective management of human-wildlife conflict. Infrastructure projects and expansion of farmlands have led to the fragmentation of animal habitats, forcing tigers, lions, leopards, rhinos and elephants to venture out of national parks and sanctuaries. At the same time, some of the country’s protected areas (PAs) are finding it difficult to satisfy the needs of animals for food, water and mates. However, carrying capacity remains a poorly understood concept in wildlife policy. The success of conservation initiatives continues to be measured in terms of increasing the population of the endangered animals. This approach has, no doubt, brought several animals back from the brink of extinction. Now, the country’s wildlife policy needs to address the follow-up question — what to do when animals compete with humans for space and natural resources. co

The NBW has approved Rs 2,900 crore for conservation works under Project Lion. The animal’s conservation arc is a good indicator of what is right and wrong with the country’s wildlife policy. In the early years of the 20th century, the animal’s numbers had dwindled to less than 20 — largely in the area that is today designated as the Gir National Park. That the last Lion Census in 2020 tallied more than 670 of these majestic animals is a tribute to the efforts of scientists and forest officials of the PA. As PM Modi rightly observed, the participation of local communities — especially the Maldhari pastoralists — played a major role in the conservation success. But the Census also carried a worrying factoid: More than 300 of Gir’s official lion population lives outside the PA’s boundaries. Experts believe that the prey base at the park cannot sustain the increasing numbers of lions, who then attack livestock in nearby villages. Lions are increasingly spotted in villages, roads, even beaches. However, even as the big cats have come into conflict with humans, been run over by trains or claimed by disease, the Gujarat government has resisted translocating some of them out of the state.

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At Monday’s NWB meeting, PM Modi reportedly stressed the use of technologies like AI to deal with forest fires and human-wildlife conflict. It’s important that science — not regional or state pride — remains the cornerstone of conservation, and in resolving some of its most difficult challenges.