India is witnessing a rise in human-animal conflict. It is time to devise strategies to deal with the issue.
What prompted this recent debate?
A tiger was crushed by a JCB near Corbett after a mob demanded ‘justice’ for deaths.
Two people from a labour camp working in forests near Corbett died after being reportedly attacked by the tiger.
Is it a Mobocracy?
In the encounters between a wild animal and a group of people, there are casualties on both sides.
In several cases of conflict this year, it has been noted that group of people have prevented the forest department from carrying out its duties.
Rather than only focussing on a wild, snarling animal, a greater understanding of crowd dynamics is also called for.
In the case of elephants in Athgarh, conservationists have documented a mob of people attacking the elephants almost daily.
Activists say this is a form of entertainment for the people concerned, as the elephants are not always harming people.
Other mobs that have gathered around wildlife have clamoured for instant ‘justice’, gratification or resolution — in the form of killing the animal, beheading it, or parading it after its death.
The symbolic control of an animal by killing it and then parading the carcass has not escaped judicial attention.
A December order of the Uttarakhand High Court said that if animals were (legally) put down, their dead bodies could not be displayed or shown in the media.
What is going wrong?
When going into an area inhabited by an obligate carnivore like a tiger, very few precautions are taken.
Most labour camps are not provided with protocol, proper toilets, or monitoring to avoid work in the early morning or late night, and to move about only in groups.
Many cases of conflict or aggression towards animals are exacerbated by carelessness and existing human-human conflict or tensions.
The question is also linked to control and which groups or classes are interested in being dominant.
The discourse around a wild animal, especially as it comes closer to people or human habitation, is that it is a criminal, a rogue, a stray, or a killer.
There is, however, very little reflection on the role of people in inciting a wild animal.
What is the way ahead?
We need solutions rather than revenge.
We need proper cordoning off of areas when wildlife comes close to people, with animal capture being done with full police involvement and not just with a helpless forest department.
We need investigations and action against groups that deliberately incite a panicked wild animal.
