Read the passage given below:
1. Avni and Sundari may have made the headlines. Many others make just the footnotes. Over the past two months, India has witnessed dramatic instances of human-wildlife conflict, with villagers in Maharashtra and Odisha demanding removal of tigers they suspect to be “man-eaters”. While the controversial killing of six-year-old tigress Avni in Maharashtra on Friday by the son of a government-appointed private shooter, and the relocation of 30-month-old tigress Sundari to Nandankanan zoo in Odisha last month grabbed media attention, conflict for space occurs every day between wildlife and people living in and around forests.
2. According to data sourced from 23 states that record wildlife-human conflict, by the Union environment ministry, more than 1,608 humans were killed in conflict cases involving tigers, leopards, bears and elephants between 2013 and 2017. These do not include all conflict issues, such as crop raids by animals, not included in schedule 1 of the wildlife protection act, such as monkeys, wild boars and nilgai. There is no data on the number of animals killed by humans in human-wildlife conflict cases. Increasing habitat loss and fragmentation of corridors animals have used for centuries have certainly caused a spurt in cases, making it vital to develop forest fringes to give animals space to survive, experts say. In the area of Gwal Pahari on the Gurugram- Faridabad Road, for example, the district town and country planning department has issued change of land use permissions to at least four builders for large-scale real estate projects in the last two years.
3. Land is a precious commodity and, in a country where there are many human-human conflicts over it, animals are bound to be second priority. “The main driver for the conflict is loss of habitat. Elephants, for example, move from 600 to 700 sq km in a year and in some extreme cases, male elephants have been known to move up to 2,800 sq km in a year. “But with only 5% of India’s geographical area being in the protected area category, these animals don’t have the space they require,” said M. Ananda Kumar of the Nature Conservation Foundation who focuses on wildlife conflict in the Valaparai region of Tamil Nadu. This isn’t a situation particular to Tamil Nadu or Karnataka. The encroachment of elephant corridors in Jharkhand and Odisha has meant the pachyderms stray into agricultural land, resulting in conflict with humans.
4. Nor is this an issue only in the case of elephants. In Gurugram, it is about leopards. “There are two major highways, National Highway 8 and the Gurgaon-Faridbad Road, which cut through leopard habitat and hinder their ability to move around in search of food and water,” said Chetan Agarwal, a city-based environment analyst. In 2017, the Wildlife Institute of India recorded 31 leopards across five districts in Haryana including Gurugram. In 2018, a drone mapping survey by the forest department reported the presence of 35 leopards in Gurugram itself. “This boom creates a huge conflict of space for the leopards, which are apex predators and require room to move around,” said Pia Sethi of the Centre for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services at The Energy Research Institute (TERI). “It is only natural for them to stray outside the corridor, which is already quite narrow and becoming narrower as a result of human activity”.
5. Experts say India is unprepared to deal with cases of conflict because of a complete lack of engagement with affected communities. “There is more focus on reactive measures rather than proactive ones such as community engagement. This means we will be absolutely unprepared to deal with conflict in the next 10 years,” said Vidya Athreya, a Pune-based wildlife biologist, who specialises in studying leopards. “The government needs to gather knowledge by talking with the affected people and involve stakeholders, like revenue department. Community support is needed to avoid an Avni kind of situation”.
6. Since reporting such conflicts is the domain of states, the Centre doesn’t know the magnitude of the conflict. “In India, conflict reporting, assessment and associated compensation is administered at local levels, with compensation often not provided for losses inside protected areas,” according to a recent paper published in Biological Conservation journal on compensation payments and policies aimed at human wildlife conflicts. The study found large variations in the amount of compensation paid to villagers under various categories. The existing variations in policies, payment procedures, amounts, across Indian states may lead to differential outcomes for wildlife tolerance and persistence across the country,” the study said.
7. “Understanding the nature of the issue is a decisive first step towards any kind of solution. For example, in Hassan (Karnataka) where we work, people want transportation for their children to go to school because they fear encountering elephants on the way,” said Kumar of NCF. However, Sethi warned that wildlife could only be managed to a certain extent. “While it’s true that the situation in the last two years has not been violent, the activities which bring us closer to leopards are continuing unabated,” she said. Another reason for increasing incidents of man-animal conflict in the state, Agarwal pointed out, is the Haryana government’s reluctance to recognise its own forests. “There are no reserve forests in the state, and deemed forests are only protected in some cases, if they are part of Aravalli plantation land or notified under the Punjab Land Preservation Act,” he said. More importantly, many parts of the Aravalli range are set to be excluded from the Natural Conservation Zone, delineated by the National Capital Region Planning Board.
[Adapted from ‘The Hindustan Times’ — Conflict on rise as animal space shrinks]
On the basis of your understanding of the above passage, answer ANY TEN of the questions given below:
Question. In this passage Avni and Sundari are ....................
(a) tigers
(b) elephants
(c) villagers
(d) reporters
Answer: D
Question. Which of the following statements is not true?
(a) Data on humans killed by animals is available.
(b) There is abundant data on animals killed by humans.
(c) Data on humans killed by animals is available with government sources.
(d) Data about different sources of humanwildlife conflict is not available.
Answer: B
Question. Which of the following statements is true?
(a) All people believe that wild animals are dangerous and should be killed.
(b) Killing of wild animals by humans has been generating controversy these days.
(c) Enough provisions exist to keep wild animals away from humans.
(d) Humans kill wild animals only in selfdefence.
Answer: C
Question. Which of the following are valid reasons for human wildlife conflict?
(a) Shrinking forests.
(b) Crop raids by wild animals.
(c) Increase in human populations.
(d) All of the options
Answer: D
Question. Community participation in resolving human wildlife issues is ....................
(a) an expensive solution to the problem
(b) not a part of the solution to the problem
(c) an essential part of the solution to the problem
(d) a solution that everyone is interested in present times
Answer: C
Question. The loss of habitat is the chief cause of:
(a) human-human conflict
(b) man-animal conflict
(c) extension of forest areas
(d) abundance of water
Answer: B
Question. What is the role of forests in generating humanwildlife conflicts?
Answer: The forests have been the habitat for animals for centuries.
Question. How does growing human population endanger wildlife?
Answer: The animals need a territory to stray which is narrowed by selfish humans.
Question. How can community participation contribute towards resolving the problems between humans and wildlife?
Answer: Community participation can contribute in resolving the issue before they become reactive.
Question. How does payment of compensation for humanwildlife conflict impact attitudes of people towards wildlife?
Answer: The coexistence of human and animal has been initiated by monetary compensation.
Question. Which kinds of organisations are working at the forefront to reduce human wildlife conflict?
Answer: Experts, policy makers and community at large are working to reduce wildlife conflicts.
Question. Find the word in para 2 which means the same as ‘a rapid increase’.
Answer: Spurt
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