Conflict in the backyard

WILD ANIMALS are destroying crops and adding massively to the economic losses of farmers.

- SUNITA NARAIN

In many parts of India farming is becoming unviable because of marauding animals. There is now a war involving not only big mammals such as tigers, elephants and leopards, but also wild boars, nilgai and other ungulates and, most damaging of all, monkeys. This is a fact, but one that we are not willing to discuss, let alone resolve. The conservation community would like to avoid this discussion; for them—perhaps rightly so—if there is a conflict, the fault lies at the doorstep of humans. We know that humans are destroying the habitats of wild animals and doing much more to push them out of forests in search of easy food and prey. This conflict is also, in part, a consequence of successful wildlife protection that has increased animal numbers. But this cannot be an excuse to look away from desperate plight of farmers.