Instances of wildlife incursion to human settlements are increasing day by day. Conflicts between humans and wild animals are frequently reported from a few districts abutting forests in Kerala. Noted ecologist Dr Madhav Gadgil has slammed the irrational protection of wild animals in the country and called for a proper regulated 'harvest' to limit their population.

Citing the examples of recent human-animal conflicts in Wayanad and Gadchiroli in Maharashtra, Gadgil said tigers and other wild animals should be protected inside the national parks and wild life sanctuaries, not outside.

"Inside the protected areas, the tiger population grows, which is a natural phenomenon. Tigers are territorial animals. They compete with each other territorially. They are driven out because of competition within their territory. This in turns leads to human-animal conflicts outside their territories".

However, unregulated shooting should never be encouraged; but there are rational systems, he said, taking examples from Norway and Sweden.

"Scandinavians have a rational system. They believe, like all other animal populations, wild life populations are a renewable resource that goes on increasing and there must be a carefully regulated harvest. In these countries, people hunt moose (elks) and reindeer with permits and licences. They follow the most democratic models. Local bodies are given the authority to come up with their prescriptions of how many animals should be harvested for the year. They decide on those levels, and licences are given accordingly. This should be emulated," Gadgil says.

In India, the Biological Diversity Act 2002 provides a framework for local communities to suggest how to manage their biodiversity with the help of local bodies. This should be strictly adhered to, says Gadgil.

"Biodiversity Management Committees should decide how to deal with such conflicts, and not the Forest Department".

'Scrap Wild Life (Protection) Act'
Terming the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 as unconstitutional, Gadgil says it is time that the act is scrapped. "It should be noted that animals like elephants, deer, and tigers were hunted before 1972. India has plenty of historical evidences of human hunting, upto 1972. Then the populations necessarily expanded. There is no other country in the world which has such an irrational Act."

"Even Dr Salim Ali was an avid hunter. He himself hunted tigers and panthers and such animals regularly" he added.

However, indiscriminate hunting can seriously affect the populations of already-endangered animals, Gadgil warns.

"In India, wolves are endangered. Another animal that is highly threatened is the freshwater crocodile 'gharial', the fish-eating crocodile. It is highly endangered with a plummeting population. But it is driven to extinction by metal pollution of the rivers in which they live, and not by hunting. It is also to be noted that such animals do not pose threats to human beings living in villages."