Farmers, Activists Seek Effective Steps To Tackle Human-Wildlife Conflict

The Government may have established a migration commission to carry out academic exercises on the burning issue of migration but nothing concrete has been done to address the problem of damage caused to agriculture by wild animals.
The elected members of legislative assembly must spend a portion of their local area development fund on measures to tackle the human-wildlife conflict and provision of basic facilities in the rural areas. These views were expressed by activists and villagers at a meeting of the Gaon Bachao Andolan. Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation (HESCO) founder Anil Prakash Joshi said that farming is the mainstay of mountain economy. On the one hand the authorities boast of increase in the big cat population but fail to take measures for tackling the human-wildlife conflict. We cannot simply blame the wildlife as humans too have encroached on their habitat. The Government needs to ensure adequate food sources for the wildlife so that the wild animals do not venture to the villages in search of food.  Farmers from Almora, Uttarkashi and other parts of the state also shared their experiences and expressed their views in the meeting.