Resolving Human-Animal Conflict

On the sidelines of the release of the census data on tiger numbers in India on the International Tiger Day, the Union Environment Ministry along with the Department of Livestock & Animal Husbandry is currently exploring a new scheme for an insurance policy which will compensate all people who may lose their livestock to tiger attacks.

Why is the scheme becoming necessary?

• India has counted over 2,967 tigers in the latest census. These figures are a 33% jump over the last tiger census which was carried out in 2014.
• The numbers indicate a nearly 6% increase in the tiger population annually.
• By these figures, the tiger population could is expected to be over 3,400 in the next survey.
• This increase in the number of tigers will further aggravate the stress on already fragmented habitats and further increase the human-animal conflict.
• Furthermore, the rise of the tiger population is more substantial in the states with more population and not so significant in areas with comparatively lower population, further complicating the stress matrix.
• The tigers are forced to move into the human-inhabited areas to search for food. The lack of prey means that the livestock is targeted by tigers.
• The loss of livestock aggravates the economic situation on the farmers and causes farmers to go on a tiger hunt.

What will change?

The introduction of this scheme will help save the tigers by compensating the farmers for the loss of their loss of livestock. This will reduce the animal-human stress nexus and help save the tigers.