Wildlife Human Conflict: Some Questions
This piece appears in the Assam Tribune on 16 th February 2016. Many thanks to Assam Tribune and Narayan Sharma. The wildlife human conflict occupied a significant chunk of time during a recent meeting called to put in place a conservation plan for a priority landscape. Agreements and disagreements over the topic spilled over from the sessions into tea-time and late evening discussions. While these deliberations did not provide answers they helped set off a stream of questions; most of which remained unanswered. The paragraphs that follow carry some of these discussions. Unanswered questions, as Colin Wright said, “ aren't threats; they're challenges and catalysts ”. One would like to begin with Dampa Tiger Reserve in Mizoram. The major issue today, in the landscape, is land-use change; jhum ( shifting cultivation ) is being replaced by cash crops like oil-palm. As a corollary conflict has turned from being primarily ‘seasonal’ into a ‘round the year’ phenomenon. I...