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Living with Wildlife and Mitigating Conflicts Around Three Indian Protected Areas

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An Erratum to this article was published on 19 October 2013

Abstract

Crop and livestock losses to wildlife are a concern for people neighboring many protected areas (PAs) and can generate opposition to conservation. Examining patterns of conflict and associated tolerance is important to devise policies to reduce conflict impacts on people and wildlife. We surveyed 398 households from 178 villages within 10 km of Ranthambore, Kanha, and Nagarahole parks in India. We compared different attitudes toward wildlife, and presented hypothetical response scenarios, including killing the problem animal(s). Eighty percent of households reported crop losses to wildlife and 13 % livestock losses. Higher crop loss was associated with more cropping months per year, greater crop variety, and more harvest seasons per year but did not vary with proximity to the PA, suggesting that PAs are not necessarily “sources” for crop raiders. By contrast, complaints of “depredating carnivores” were associated with people-grazing animals and collecting resources from PAs. Many households (83 %) engaged in mitigation efforts. We found that only fencing and guard animals reduce crop losses, and no efforts to lower livestock losses. Contrary to our expectations, carnivores were not viewed with more hostility than crop-raiding wildlife. Households reported greater inclination to kill herbivores destroying crops or carnivores harming people, but not carnivores preying on livestock. Our model estimated crop loss was 82 % across surveyed households (highest in Kanha), while the livestock loss experienced was 27 % (highest in Ranthambore). Our comparative study provides insights into factors associated with conflict loss and tolerance, and aids in improving ongoing conservation and compensation efforts.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank K. U. Karanth, P. M. Muthanna, S. K. Nepal, Centre for Wildlife Studies and Wildlife Conservation Society-India Program for support in the field. They also thank Jim Nichols and USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Centre for hosting Karanth and Gopalaswamy in 2011. We are grateful to the forest departments of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka, and S. Sharma, H.S. Pabla, H. S. Negi, R. Shukla, A.C. Poovaih, and U. Ramakrishnan for their support. Invaluable field assistance by A. Srivathsa and S. Gundecha enabled data collection. NSF Grant Number 1029219 supported this research. Columbia University IRB approved all the survey protocols.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10027, USA

    Krithi K. Karanth & Ruth DeFries

  2. Centre for Wildlife Studies, 224, Garden Apartments, Vittal Malya Road, Bengaluru, 560001, India

    Krithi K. Karanth & Arjun M. Gopalaswamy

  3. Wildlife Conservation Society, New York, NY, 10460, USA

    Krithi K. Karanth

  4. Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Lisa Naughton-Treves

  5. Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), The Recanati-Kaplan Centre, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Tubney House, Abingdon Road, Tubney, Abingdon, OX13 5QL, UK

    Arjun M. Gopalaswamy

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  1. Krithi K. Karanth
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  2. Lisa Naughton-Treves
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  3. Ruth DeFries
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  4. Arjun M. Gopalaswamy
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Correspondence to Krithi K. Karanth.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 8.

Table 8 Covariates and a priori predictions about their influence on household risk to crop-raiding and livestock predation in Ranthambore, Kanha, and Nagarahole National Parks
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Karanth, K.K., Naughton-Treves, L., DeFries, R. et al. Living with Wildlife and Mitigating Conflicts Around Three Indian Protected Areas. Environmental Management 52, 1320–1332 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-013-0162-1

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