Planning for Mitigating the Risk of Human-Wildlife Conflict in Urban Areas

A Case Study of Rajaji National Park and Haridwar

2020
Undegraduate Thesis

India experiences a considerable amount of human wildlife conflict but these conflicts usually occur in rural landscapes which are in close proximity to forested areas. But more recently, the proximity between human dominated landscapes and wildlife habitat is decreasing all over the world including India. In the Himalayan region and the Terai Arc Belt with negative impacts are escalating over the last few decades. Space for wildlife has been shrinking and this is leading to conflicts in interests of humans and wildlife. A major reason of the decreasing proximity is urban development which has huge impacts on the biodiversity.

This study aimed at identifying the drivers and impacts of human-wildlife conflicts in Haridwar, a city cutting through the Rajaji National Park, a crucial protected area in the lower Himalayas.

Although there have been several measures taken through programs and action plans at different levels, these lack a long-term approach to mitigate these conflicts.

“Currently, a city of 50,000 people falls within 17km of 25% of world’s protected areas.”

-Mcdonald, Robert & Kareiva, Peter & Forman, Richard. (2008). The Implications of current and future urbanization for global protected areas and Biodiversity conservation. Biological Conservation

Human-Wildlife Confict in India & Haridwar

The Rajaji National park was established in 1983 by merging 3 wildlife sanctuaries covering a total area of 820.42 square kilometers. The park has been facing immense anthropogenic pressures and has several wildlife corridors encroached by development. Relocation of Van Gujjars from park premises have given urban development an opportunity to come up. 15% area of the national park is open for tourism, and the rest is designated as the core area. Villages around the park have been witnessing human-wildlife conflicts as people started settling around the forests. But wildlife entering into urban localities is not uncommon and is largely uncovered by current research. The Haridwar Planning Area is taken for this research which cuts through the two patches of the national park and is highly proone to human-widlife interactions and conflicts.

Timeline of Infrastructure Development
in Haridwar

Conflict Prone Sites

Legislations, Plans, and Policies in India on Human-Wildlife Conflict

The issue of human-wildlife conflict (HWC) started emerging into plans and policies gradually as rapid transformation of land started to occur in India. Policies during British colonization focused on securing forests from further degradation. After WPA, 1972, when protected areas became an essential way to conserve wildlife, protecting and restoring wildlife corridors became one of the goals as a means to conserve and replenish the lost biodiversity. While Project Tiger was an a new initiative to conserve the vulnerable species, not much emphasis was laid on human-wildlife conflict. It was only after Project Elephant that human-wildlife conflict was benchmarked as an issues needing urgent attention.

Mitigating human-wildlife conflict as a wildlife management target is pretty observable in the recent plans and polices with land use planning as a measure but these objectives have not percolated to lower order plans and programmes, particularly for those areas which are at higher risk. As human-wildlife is a contextual issue, meaning it is prevalent only where humans are in close proximity to wildlife habitat, special attention should be given to such areas and the policies should guide every aspect of environmental conservation and physical development. A mixture of both short term and long term measures must be implemented to prevent these conflicts.

Human-Wildlife Conflict Trends in the Haridwar Forest Division

There are several discrepancies in the data as well as missing data mostly due to unreported events. Media reports, as well as various research papers, have indicated different numbers of animal deaths and human casualties. Ungulates (spotted deer, sambar, blue bull, swamp deer) contribute to more than half of the animal deaths. Elephants and leopards deaths follow after ungulates which indicates that the whole area is under potential risk. Most numbers of animal deaths are due to poaching and vehicle collisions after natural causes.

Spatial Manifestation of Conflicts in BHEL Township

Spatial Manifestation of Conflicts in Kumbh Mela Land

Area under Kumbh Mela = 10.44 sq.km
(This area is dedicated for Kumbh purpose only)

Approximately 60 million tourists visited Haridwar during 2010 Mahakumbh. The Kumbh Mela in Haridwar takes place every twelve years and the most recent ones were held in 2010 from January to April and the next one was held in the year 2021. A few studies were conducted after the 2010 Kumbh on how the widlife movement is restricted during the event. A major reason for restriction in animal movement particularly elephant is the increase in footfall during the festival. The primary roads are jam packed with vehicles which make it difficult for the animals to commute to their traditional feeding grounds on the landscape. There have been observed variations in the movement behaviours of elephants as they continue to shrink into smaller patches during the festival and only a few bull elephants have been known to commute during this time. Unchecked garbage disposal at prominent tourist points attract animals to feed upon it and increase their proximity with humans. This in turn increases the risk of conflict.

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