A new report done by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said that 35 per cent of India’s tiger ranges are outside protected areas. The study also said that over 75 percent of the World’s cat species have been affected by human-animal conflicts.
“Currently, 35% of India’s tiger range, 40% of the African lion range, and 70% of the African and Asian elephant ranges are outside protected areas,” the report said.
The report said that human-animal conflict is a burning issue. Such conflicts often lead to the killing of wild animals. According to the report, in India, human-wildlife conflict is an increasing challenge driven by development pressures.
” With the world’s second-largest human population along with the largest wild populations of tigers, Asian elephants, One-horned rhinos, Asiatic lions, and other globally threatened species, India faces urgent problems of human-wildlife conflict that must be addressed to achieve a socially just form of conservation. India’s elephants probably embody the problem the best,” the report said.
The report said that as per the Indian Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change data, over 500 elephants were killed between 2014-15 and 2018-19. During the period 2,361 people were killed as a result of the human-elephant conflict.
According to Margaret Kinnaird, Global Wildlife Practice Leader at WWF global wildlife population has fallen by an average of 68 percent since 1970. “Human-wildlife conflict, in combination with other threats, has driven the significant decline of species that were once abundant, and species that are naturally less abundant have been pushed to the brink of extinction,” he added.
The report said that well-planned and integrated approaches to managing Human-wildlife conflict can reduce the problem. In this regard, the report added an example explaining how in the Sonitpur district of Assam, WWF could manage to train people to coexist with wild elephants.
The report called ‘A future for all-The need for human-wildlife coexistence’ was prepared by WWF and UNEP with contributions from 155 experts from 40 organizations based in 27 countries.
