See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279752445 Economics of Man-animal Conflict: A Lesson for Wildlife Conservation Book · January 2003 CITATION READS 1 297 2 authors: Tuhin K. Das Indrila Guha Jadavpur University Basanti Devi College 77 PUBLICATIONS 224 CITATIONS 22 PUBLICATIONS 47 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Climate Change View project A SURVEY TO EVALUATE THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT OF WILDLIFE CONSERVATION IN JALDAPARA WILDLIFE SANCTUARY IN WEST BENGAL View project All content following this page was uploaded by Tuhin K. Das on 20 May 2017. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Contents Preface List of tables List of figures 1. Conservation from ecological perspectives 2. Steps towards conservation in India 3. Emerging conflicts and participatory approach 4. Economics of man-animal conflict 5. Background information of selected sanctuaries 6. Who are the respondents 7. Crop raiding and extent of loss 8. Loss of life and asset 9. Compensation and people’s dissatisfaction 10. Benefit- cost analysis 11. People’s preference for wildlife conservation 12. Conservation from socio-economic point of view Epilogue Bibliography Index Preface India has accorded high priority to the conservation of wildlife as can be seen from the number of governmental measures undertaken, like establishment of national parks and sanctuaries, legislation, special projects for conservation of endangered animals, institutional support and conservation education. However, in the case of wildlife conservation the real problem is human management apart from how the animals are handled. Here lies the importance of economics of man-animal conflict. People in and around any wildlife sanctuary bear the costs of damage caused by wild animals to human life, assets, and agricultural crops. On the contrary, they derive some benefits from the habitats of wild animals. The resulting benefit-cost relations sometimes lead to man-animal conflict. The government always tries to mitigate these conflicts through various precautionary measures and compensations to the affected people, although the rate of compensation is not always appropriate. In this context, a quantitative analysis is highly needed to decide how to compensate the affected people in a rational way. The proposed book is such an attempt with case studies. First part of this book (Chapters 1-5) covers some important aspects of wildlife conservation, namely ecological aspect, legal aspect and socio-economic aspect. And all the discussions in these chapters are based on secondary data. But Chapters 6-12 of this book are based on primary data obtained from field surveys in the forest villages of Jaldapara and Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuaries. DSA Centre of the Department of Economics, Jadavpur University provided financial assistance for conducting those field surveys. So, we would like to thank Professor Ajitava Raychaudhury, Coordinator of the DSA Centre, Department of Economics, Jadavpur University for funding this project and extending his financial cooperation for publication of this book. The authors also acknowledge all sorts of help provided by Mr. A. K. Raha, Chief Conservator of forests and Mr. S. K. Das, Conservator of Forest, South to make the field survey in Jaldapara and Mahanada Willife Sanctuaries possible. During the survey, the cooperation from Mr. Dilip Chakroborty, and Divisional Forest Officers of Darjeeling and Coochbehar should also be acknowledged. Finally, the authors are thankful to Alokananda Mukherjee and Ishita Datta Roy for their patient reading with comments in the course of completing the manuscript. January 15, 2003, Kolkata Tuhin K. Das Indrila Guha List of tables No. Description Page 1.1 Threatened species in India 2 1.2 Basic building blocks of biodiversity 4 1.3 Nationally protected areas 6 2.1 Endangered species (mammals) in schedule I of the Wild Life (protection) Act, 1972 17 2.2 Endangered species (amphibians and reptiles) in schedule I of the Wild Life (protection) Act, 1972 20 2.3 Endangered species (birds) in schedule I of the Wild Life (protection) Act, 1972 21 3.1 An example of man-animal conflict 5.1 Animal species found in Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary 38 5.2 Animal species found in Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary 41 5.3 Budgetary allocation (in percentage) for a period of 5 years 42 6.1 Family profile and income level 46 6.2 Average age of respondents 47 6.3 Educational level of respondents 48 6.4 Occupational (primary) pattern of the respondents 49 6.5 Occupational (subsidiary) pattern of the respondents 50 7.1 Frequency of incidents of crop raiding per household 52 No. Description Page 7.2 Animals responsible for crop raiding (in percentage) 53 7.3 Crop-wise allocation of land per household 54 7.4 Crop-wise return and loss per household from agriculture 55 8.1 Loss of life and asset 59 8.2 Monetary value of losses per household 60 9.1 Official rate of compensation for different kinds of loss 65 9.2 Compensation received against loss of crops 66 9.3 Demand for compensation 67 9.4 Frequency of crop raiding per household 68 9.5 Anomaly between loss and demand for compensation 69 10.1 Yearly benefits derived per household from sanctuaries 71 10.2 Benefit-cost analysis 73 11.1 WTP for wildlife conservation 79 11.2 Percentage of respondents in favour of arguments for WTP 80 11.3 Conditional WTP for conservation of wildlife 83 11.4 Logistic regression model of WTP on Socio-economic variables 85 12.1 Penalty for committing offences in Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary 76 12.2 Average budgetary allocation per year (in million Rupees) 78 12.3 Killings of wild animals per year (1983-94) 78 No. Description Page 12.4 Economic and non-economic arguments behind WTP 79 12.5 Number of tourists and revenue earned from Youth Hostel and Hollong and Barodabari Tourist Lodge 80 12.6 Outcome and pay-off summary for Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary 81 List of figures No. Description Page 3.1 Sources of man-animal conflict 29 4.1 Economics of man-animal conflict 36 5.1 Protected areas in India 44 7.1 Return from cultivation of different crops in JWLS 56 7.2 Return from cultivation of different crops in MWLS 57 7.3 Distribution of loss, input cost and net return 58 8.1 Percentage share of losses of different kinds in JWLS 61 8.2 Percentage share of losses of different kinds in MWLS 63 9.1 Inconsistency in compensation rate per acre for crop loss 70 10.1 Benefits from forests in JWLS 75 10.2 Benefits from forests in MWLS 76 11.1 Effect of socio-economic factors on WTP 88 CHAPTER 1 CONSERVATION FROM ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES Depletion of wildlife species has gone hand in hand with the progress of civilization. Thousands of years ago primitive man lived in harmony with nature. His hunting of wild animals for food and clothing never caused the depletion of wild animals. In fact, decline in the number of wildlife species has kept pace with human progress and technological advance. Destruction of habitats of wildlife for the spread of urban areas, construction of roads, railways and dams, and agricultural and industrial operations has caused the decline of wildlife population. Along with the destruction of habitats for human progress, uncontrolled hunting and poaching of wild animals for pleasure, furs, horns, tusks, and other animal products has also caused many animal species either to go extinct or endangered. But man has not always been the sole cause for wildlife depletion. Extinction of animal species occurred even over millions of years long before the appearance of man in this world. Natural extinction of species is a way of nature to give rise to more advanced forms of life as the process of evolution natural selection. Certain species always disappear over time as they become unable to withstand the competition from those that are better adopted. Several animals like the mammoths and mastodons have flourished and disappeared in the course of time. It has been estimated that the natural rate of species extinction is at about 0.000009 per cent per year. However, at several times in the geological past, this rate was very high on natural grounds. Sometimes a whole group of animals have become extinct, as had happened with the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period, some seventy million years ago. The present rate of species extinction is also very high. But this time it is primarily due to the actions of human beings. A large number of species either go extinct or are threatened because of either overexploitation or habitat destruction. In all of the countries in the world ─ low, middle and high-income ─ significant number of species is now threatened.╬ If appropriate conservation measures are not taken, these threatened species will go extinct very soon. Even in developed countries like United States more than eleven percent of the total species of mammals, birds and higher plants are now threatened species. In India among the threatened species, more than twelve percent are mammals, about six percent are birds, and more than eight percent are higher plants (see Table 1.1). Table 1.1 Threatened species in India Species Number of species Threatened species Mammals 340 40 Birds 1200 71 Higher plants 15000 1256 Source: World Development Indicators, World Bank, 1998 ╬ A threatened species is what has been classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as endangered, vulnerable, rare and indeterminate. Certain species go extinct because of overexploitation, but vast majority of them are at risk because of habitat destruction. This comes primarily from pressures to pursue economic development like clearing of forests for agricultural uses, conversion of wetland for urban expansion, and so on.