Man and animal conflict
The present situation appeared on the earth sometimes during years ago while animals occupied this earth earlier. As soon as the man came on the earth , conflicts between man and animals started as he started killing animals for food and other purposes. He started his life as a hunter. After some time, he found that fruits, seeds, leaves , and other parts of plants could be utilized as food so he starts collecting those seeds and fruits from the forest and thus he starts living as hunter and gatherer and lived in wilderness system. He lived like this for considerable period of time. In due course of time, he learnt that these plants could be cultivated. It is only about ten to fifteen thousand years ago that he started cultivation of food crops and raring animals for living. After tracts and killed large number of animals. He started domestication of several species of wild animals to meet his requirement.Human population has been increasing all over the world but more rapidly in India. During 100 years, better health care, improved food availability and better living conditions led to rapid increase in human population in India. During the year 1900, population in India was less than 17 cores. In a period of 100 years, it reached to almost 6 times to more than 100 corers. The rise in population during recent years placed a great demand on earth’s natural resources. A large stretches of forests have been converted into agriculture. Some agriculture land has been diverted to industry and habitation. Increase in population continuously led to increased demand on land, water, food, energy, consumer goods etc. Wild animals which roamed in large numbers in forests were killed for food, sport, trophy and other purposes. Tiger population which was more than 40,000 during early part of twentieth century was reduced to less than three thousand during later part of twentieth century. These pressures are still continuing causing great demand on forest, wildlife and wilderness areas.
In nature, there is balance in the ecosystem. Most organisms are dependent on other organisms. The grasses, herbs, shrubs, trees etc. which take energy from sunlight to make their own food are known as producers. There are insects and herbivore animals which eat these grasses, herbs, shrubs, etc and keep these under check. There are birds which eat insects and keep their population under control. While certain species of birds may damage crop plants, but this damages is overwhelmingly offset by the benefits. Our crop plants, orchard, our food supplies etc would be destroyed by a large number of insect species without the protection afforded by the birds. Insects have a very high multiplication capacity and if they are unchecked, they can overwhelm all life forms on this earth. In order to keep a control over the population of herbivore animals, nature has created a number of carnivore or predator animals. The carnivore animals are used for different purpose, e.g. clothing, medicine, food, trophies, etc therefore these are killed by man. Some carnivore animals are killed by other carnivores. Most ecosystems are highly complex and extremely large number of species. It would thus appear that in nature every animal has a role which helps to keep a balance in nature.
Main kinds of conflicts
Whenever man and wild animals live in the same area; conflict is inevitable. Generally the victims are the wild animals. But wild animals also cause some injury and loss to human beings; such loss and injury is generally referred to as man-animals conflict. The main conflicts are the following:1. Loss of crops
2. Loss of livestock
3. Loss of human life and property
4. Damage to property
5. Stealing, snatching
6. Loss of grains
1. Loss of crops
Several animals cause considerable damage to crops. Most deer species especially sambar and chital; antelopes like blackbuck and blue bull; wild boar, several rodents and most birds cause considerable damage to both kharif and rabi crops in the fields located on the boundary of forests. The damage is very serious along PA’s where these animals live in considerably large numbers. While the damages by birds and rodents are more than compensated by their positive contribution in pest control, the damages by deer, antelopes, wild boar, etc is locally significant and not compensated.
2. Loss of livestock
The loss of livestock damage are mostly concentrated in districts rich in wild population. It has been found that most killings of domestic animals take place when these animals are sent for grazing in forests or PA’s rich in predators. Cattle killing cases in three districts of Gujarat which adjoin Gir, WLS namely, Amreli, Junagarh and Bhavanagar range from 1300 to 1500 cases annually. Such cases are reported in other states also particularly in areas which are rich in predator population.
3. Injury to loss of human life:
There are some cases of injury of human beings due to wild animals. There are cases of human deaths due to attack of tiger, elephant, leopard, bear, bison, etc. About ten thousand persons die annually due to snake bites in the country. The number of deaths due to the attack by tiger, leopard, elephant, bear, etc. in the country is about five hundred annually. Tiger, leopard, bear, and other predators attack the men when they encounter men of all.
4. Damage to property:
Elephants cause damage to house and other property. Such damages are common in some pockets of west Bengal, Assam, Karnataka, Kerala, and Jharkhand. Serious damages to houses and other properties have been reported from Chhattisgarh and recently from Madhya Pradesh as numbers of elephant herds enter the state of Surguja and Raigarh in Chhattisgarh and Sidhi and Shahdol districts in Madhya Pradesh.
5. Stealing and snatching:
Stealing and snatching of goods, food stuffs, etc. are done by rhesus monkeys and other monkeys. These monkeys easily mingle with human elements on the crowded platform of railway station accepting food from passengers or stealing it when they can. Common languors are venerated by Hindus and they live around tanks, temples, and establish themselves in town and cities. Due to their increased population in town and cities, they are creating several problems in towns and cities, they are creating several problems to residents.
6. Loss of food grains:
Considerable food grains are destroyed by the rodents. It is estimated that more than 1o percent food grains are destroyed every year in the country. Their rate of breeding defeats any attempts to control them. Great loss id caused by rats, squirrel, mice and other rodents to food grains, more grave is the risk of diseases caused by their presence in the midst of humans and animals.
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