Framework of human-elephant conflict management

Death of an estimated 500 people and about 100 elephants every year in human elephant conflict (HEC) paints a grim picture of intractability of the conflict. If the conflict is allowed to drag on, it will soon become unmanageable and these figures may rise exponentially, pose existential threat to elephant in the country and cause extensive damage to human properties. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forest and Climate Change has given a broader perspective of the conflict and describes Human Animal Conflict (HAC) as "a complex issue as serious as hunting." The parliamentary panel in a recent report has stressed on the need for legislative backing to effectively manage the HAC situation and calls for disaggregating HAC into those conflicts that endangerhuman life and property (as in the case of elephants and large carnivores) and those that damage human property – for example, crop damage. It recommends insertion of a new section- Constitution of Human-Animal Conflict Management Advisory Committee- in the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill to provide legislative mandate to the proposed committee and its recommendations. Such a committee to be constituted by the State Government, if incorporated in the final bill and passed by the parliament, will be mandated to ensure planning, monitoring, and mitigation of human-wildlife conflict within the State. The parliamentary panel has also listed the functions of the Human-Animal Conflict Management Advisory Committee. These include assessing the extent of human-animal conflict and finalizing an adaptive action plan covering all aspects including equipment, trained personnel, allocation of funds and advice on quantum ofcompensation to affected people;formulate site-specific plans including creation of viable wildlife corridors to ensure long-term resolution of conflict; developing specific protocols and Standard Operating Procedures, including prescription of scientific capture, translocation and population management techniques based on best practices, including maintenance of law and order in the affected local area or location and related subjects. The Committee justifies the requirement of another statutory committee even though the law already empowers constitution of the State Board for Wild Life by stating that a specialized committee, having limited members with in-depth technical knowledge for evolving effective site-specific plans/ mitigation strategies including recommendations on changing cropping patterns and for taking critical decisions at short notice, empowered under the law is necessary. The legal process to give effect to these recommendations is going to take time even after these are accepted by the government and presented before the parliament for consideration while management of HEC and other HAC need to continuously improve and requires elaborate guidelines for forest staff. A field manual brought out by the Project Elephant Division of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change as a ready reckoner for forest officials and staff for dealing with HEC situations is expected to improve HEC management and better respond to emergency situation related to such conflict. The "Field Manual for Managing Human-Elephant Conflict" brought out by the Project Elephant Division with technical support from WWF-India and Wildlife Institute of India lists immediate, short term and medium-term actions to address the conflict. It focuses on "tested interventions that aim to minimize how much elephants harm people or property inhuman-dominated areas", the "most affordable intervention in each case, recommending more expensive or resource intensive interventions only when less expensive alternatives are exhausted" and "standardized and systematized data collection, allowing for more sophisticated data-driven solutions to HEC in the future." The field manual explains that elephants are an intelligent species which will learn to overcome many interventions and, therefore, the manual will be updated every three years. This will make response to HEC dynamic and guide forest staff and communities to adopt to new response mechanism that will minimize losses. "While completely eliminating human-elephant conflict might not be possible in the foreseeable future, this guideline is aimed to foster an organized and effective response that minimizes losses to conflict," states the field manual which lays emphasis on promoting both human well-being and elephant conservation. The manual, however, does not deal with HEC conflict occurring inside forests or outside human habitat which will limit the outcomes also to affected human habitats. Addressing the larger issue of protecting the elephant habitat from degradation and fragmentation is of critical importance to prevent expansion of HEC areas. Apart from short-and medium-term actions in existing conflict zones, long term actions like protection of elephant habitat are essential to reduce interaction of human and wild elephants. Elephant reserves and corridors notified in Assam and other states have no legal status and continue to be degraded and fragmented due to mining, industrial activities, mega connectivity projects. While the field manual will help forest staff to articulate new response to alarming rise of HEC emergency situations in Assam, preventing expansion of conflict zones continues to be the key challenge.