Nitiveer Patil says he had not seen a bison till about 15 years ago.
“Now I see them every other day,” says the 45-year-old farmer from Radhanagari in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district, complaining about the damage the animal causes to his
sugarcane crops.
“I have done electrical fencing around my plot. Yet, the animals sometimes manage to enter the fields. They destroy the crop and small plants," he says.
Human-wildlife conflict isn’t new, but is on the rise in India. Cutting of forest for farming and industrial activities is bringing humans and wild animals face to face more often. An increasing shift towards cash crops where the stakes are high, meanwhile, is making the farmer protect his fields more fiercely. The ensuing conflict, at times, results in casualties, on both sides.
But Indians have a more humane approach towards animals compared with many other countries and incidents like the one in Kerala, where a pregnant elephant died after biting into what is suspected to be a fruit stuffed with firecrackers, are rare, say wildlife experts.
“India is way ahead in sharing space with wild animals, which are protected by law even on the private property,” says Aritra Kshettri, a fellow of the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research programme.
It is a known fact that the presence of elephants is not restricted to forests, says Kshettri, who is researching human-elephant conflicts. In India, he says, 80% of the elephants are distributed outside national parks.
The traditional paths used by the elephants at times get disturbed by human activities, leading to conflicts. One of the states affected the most is
West Bengal, where around 60 people are killed by elephants every year.
In Maharashtra’s Pune and
Ahmednagar districts, leopards have made sugarcane fields their home, and often come face-toface with workers.
Wild boars and monkeys are seen as a menace by farmers even far away from forest fringes.
"Wild animals eating crops is as old as agriculture is,” says Wildlife Conservation Society India associate director Vidya Athreya. “It is a complex issue.”
When a small farmer loses a big chunk of his crop, it affects his tolerance level against wild animals. If a family member is killed, it compounds the situation. Addressing this, while also protecting the wildlife, is often a tricky subject for the authorities.