Title: Designing a Comprehensive Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) Management Strategy in select districts/landscapes of Sikkim
KeyWords: Human-wildlife conflict (HWC)
Year of Publication: 2020
ISSN No: NA
Author Name: T. Ingty, R. Rai, R. Seidler, S. Khaling
Details:
Executive Summary
This report describes procedures and outcomes of a year-long (originally 9-month-long) project to understand community perceptions of the apparently growing problem of human- wildlife conflict (HWC) in West and North districts, Sikkim. An ATREE team, working out of the ATREE Gangtok office, spent 9 months on field work, surveys and interviews, and collection of documentary evidence on the characteristics and incidence of HWC in an assigned sample of 27 villages. Perceptions of HWC impacts are variable between regions (North and West Sikkim), among villages, and also among households within individual villages. The single strongest determinant of perceived variation in HWC species across Sikkim state is elevation. Bears and wild boar are reported to cause the most problems in the mid-elevation villages, especially around the fringe villages of KNP, which are located in the Biosphere Reserve or national park buffer zone. At the higher elevations in North Sikkim, feral dogs were often mentioned as the biggest HWC problem. Snow leopards and Tibetan wolves were mentioned but were not seen as a major problem. HWC ‘hotspots’ were found most clearly at the sub-village level; that is, particular households or groups of households seemed most vulnerable. Many households reported considering giving up agriculture partially or completely, because they were losing so much productivity to HWC. The mitigation strategies they had tried did not seem to be achieving much, nor did the current ex-gratia system seem consistently helpful. Our recommendations for improving farmers’ situation in these remote villages emphasize 1) research (to better understand the population dynamics of the problem species, especially inside protected areas); 2) community-based trials and monitoring of combinations of mitigation strategies (multiple fencing types, fencing plus noise-makers, etc); 3) intensive discussions between communities and Forest Department to reinvigorate efforts to develop an adequate insurance / compensation / ex gratia system that works for everyone.