The human-wildlife conflict is a serious obstacle to the state’s wildlife conservation efforts to protect the endangered species. It is an outcome of the enhanced competition between man and the animal species for the diminishing resource pool. The wildlife is being robbed of its natural habitat by the greed of consumerism and commercialisation of forest products, resulting in numerous incidents where recurrent attacks by the stray wild animals have caused loss to human life and property.
The residents in turn have developed a negative attitude towards wild animals and retaliated by capturing and killing the animals. The conflict is prevalent mostly inside and around the protected areas, where the density of the animal population is much higher and clashes with the habitants becomes inevitable.
The concept of protected areas (PA) was introduced as an effective tool to conserve wild species and natural habitats. It is basically an identified geographical space (land and/or sea) protected by the government because of its rich environmental, ecological, natural or cultural value. They are established, governed and controlled by the legal provisions of the Wildlife Act, 1972.
The said Act incorporates in spirit and form the constitutional mandate of conserving the rich wildlife and the forests of our country and in the process addresses the conflicts of man and wild animals.
Human activities inside these PAs are heavily regulated. All people having or holding land in PAs are prohibited from selling or disposing of their land and their right to collect forest produce eg, fodder, fuel, etc is also restricted. In the core areas of the tiger reserves, human habitation is completely forbidden to the extent expected to cause irreversible damage to the tigers and their habitat.
Despite the inflated objective and design of the PAs, the major issue prompted by the wildlife conservationists today is the abundance of human population residing within and on the fringes of the PAs. In India the PA network expands to include 96 national parks, 510 wildlife sanctuaries, 3 conservation reserves and 2 community reserves constituting approximately 4.77% of the country’s total geographical area.
There are currently no reported figures available on the human population residing within these PAs however, a survey (1989) conducted in a government project estimated it to 60,000 families comprising of the indigenous communities, the residents of the forest villages, and other such forest dwellers, living within the PA network in India.
The biggest challenge of wildlife conservation is the relocation of these people from the PAs. It is important to mention here the recent Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 that has recognised and secured the right to livelihood and food security of the tribal residing in the forest land of the PAs for generations. It complements the Wildlife Act, as a step towards mitigating the human-wildlife conflict by encouraging co-existence between wildlife and human living and partnering the cause of wildlife conservation and sustainability of the forest ecosystems as a whole.
There exist centrally-sponsored schemes like Project Tiger, Development of National Parks and Sanctuaries, and Project Elephant that focus on activities including, acquisition of land in the interest of the wildlife reserves, payment of compensation for relocating people having proprietary rights, rehabilitation of the oustees in an appropriate manner etc. The law also allows voluntary private arrangements for relocation of these people from the core areas of the PAs.
Despite the concerted efforts shown on paper, records show that the states have not followed the procedure prescribed by law for settlement of the rights of these people. The restrictions without the safeguards are being proactively enforced. The government is being accused of misappropriation of funds, and ineffective implementation of the law.
The Tiger Task Force Report elaborates on how the relocation of villages has also not worked well with the people. There has been no finding till date on how the human settlements in the PAs are impacting the wildlife and their habitats and if it is at all possible to settle the rights of all the people living in the PAs and relocate all the resident families.
It hits the basic principle of efficient management and sustainable use of land resources. The solution lies in the combined effort of all stakeholders in the efficient management and planning of the conservation strategies. The government alone cannot be burdened. The government has to join hands with the private individuals, persons and the non-governmental bodies and create a reward system as incentives to achieve the set objectives of conserving the entire ecosystem. The people living in and around the PAs have to be sensitised about the need of conservation of nature and its importance to their very survival.
Mrinal Kumar is a principal associate and Saloni Singh is an associate at Amarchand Mangaldas & Suresh Shroff & Co
