Gayathri Venkatramanan

Addressing Human-Tiger Conflict and its Conservation Implications in the Conservation Priority Landscapes of Tamil Nadu, India

Tigers are the apex predators of the forest ecosystem and loss in tiger population can potentially disrupt the structure and functionality of the ecosystem. The Western and Eastern Ghats parts of Tamil Nadu, southern India are among India’s most important Tiger conservation unit, because these areas support a high density of large mammals, and have the last remaining stronghold source population. However, tiger population is under decline in this landscape due to loss of habitat connectivity, human persecution due to livestock depredation, poaching and other direct anthropogenic pressure. In developing countries such as India, where the local communities in the human-wildlife interface are largely dependent on livestock rearing as source of revenue, often retaliate when experience economic losses or human casualties due to human-tiger conflict in their locality. The tiger habitats are prone to high livestock grazing activity due to the growing human population at human-wildlife interface. Human wildlife conflict is turning out to be one of the major threats and burning issues in India to the conservation and the ever growing human population will inevitably result in increase in human wildlife conflict Conservation of tiger is however dependent on successfully resolving human-animal conflicts in the human-wildlife interface.

The overall aim of the project is to assess the drivers of human-tiger conflict for conservation of tigers in the priority landscape of Tamil Nadu. Questionnaire surveys to the local communities and Forest Officials will provide a comprehensive understanding of people attitude and effectiveness of the park managers in minimizing the conflict. Indirect sign surveys in the human-wildlife interface will provide information on the spatial drivers of tiger distribution. The crucial information obtained from this study will help in understanding the patterns of human-tiger conflict for developing management action plans to mitigate conflict in the conservation priority landscape. The outreach program for the local communities and the Forest Officials will help in tackling the human-tiger conflict effectively.

For further information contact:

E-mail: gayathri.v@sacon.in or gayathrivenkatramanan91@gmail.com