AP Explores Ways To Reduce Human-Wildlife Conflict for Their Coexistence

Vijayawada: The state government is exploring ways and means to deal with human-wildlife conflict and promote their coexistence. To begin with, the forest department has identified issues of conflicts mainly between humans and elephants, leopards, tigers, sloth bears, olive ridley turtles, Indian wild pigs, macaques and snakes.With regard to human-elephant conflict, foresters identified geographical hotspots in the districts like Srikakulam, Parvathipuram Manya, Chittoor, Tirupati and Annamayya. They noticed that the conflict is resulting in damage to crops like tomato, mango, banana, paddy, sugarcane and also human deaths in the forest-fringe villages.They are adopting mitigation measures by setting up an elephant task force to monitor elephant movement in Chittoor-Seshachalam landscape, have established elephant camps at Naniyala and Musalamadugu and roped in Kumkis to drive elephants back to the interior forests from fringe villages.They are also using modern technology like AI- based solar automatic detection and deterrence system and the use of vertical hanging of solar fences to drive away elephants. For human-leopard conflict, foresters have noticed that dumping of garbage in forest fringe areas is attracting wild boars and leopards and called for proper management of garbage.On human-tiger conflict, the foresters note that the tigers are expanding out of Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve through corridors like Palnadu, Kadapa, Annamayya, Tirupati, Nellore, Eluru and Paderu. No incident of a tiger killing human beings has been reported in AP so far, while there have been recurring instances of cattle kills.On human-sloth bear conflict, the foresters note that the conflicts are occurring in forest fringe areas in all districts. The causes are habitat fragmentation and loss, as also piling up of garbage near temple areas.They have adopted mitigation measures like habitat protection and improvement, and proper garbage management. They also monitor their movement by deploying teams and camera traps.On the human-olive ridley turtles conflict, the foresters have identified hotspots along the coastal belt of AP with nesting activity along Srikakulam, Kakinada, Bapatla, East Godavari, Krishna and Nellore districts. Foresters noted incidental mortality due to entanglement in fishing nets and disturbance to nesting sites and hatcheries during the breeding season. They have taken up mitigation measures like seasonal closure of coastal zones during nesting and mating periods and to promote usage of Turtle Excluder devices by the fishermen in their nets. The foresters have also identified hotspots for Indian Wild Pigs, Macaques and snakes — and the reasons and areas of conflicts — and initiated steps to protect them and facilitate their coexistence with humans.Additional principal chief conservator of forests Shantipriya Pande said, “We are considering the human-wildlife conflicts as a serious issue and taking a series of steps for the coexistence of both humans and wild animals.”Infographics:The forest department is holding a webinar on Jan. 31 involving several experts to discuss human-wildlife conflicts and to come up with technology-based solutions. Foresters will present their action plan to deal with human-wildlife conflicts in AP before the members of the parliamentary consultative committee.AP comes up with an initiative of HANUMAN (Healing And Nurturing Units for Monitoring Aid and Nursing of Wildlife) to move from human-wildlife conflict to coexistence by taking up a series of measures like identification of species-wise hotspots, constitution of rapid response teams, training to stakeholders and usage of technology.



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