Human–crocodile conflict in the Indian Sundarban: an analysis of spatio-temporal incidences in relation to people's livelihood C HANDAN S URABHI D AS and R ABINDRANATH J ANA Abstract The incidence of human–crocodile conflict is in- antagonistic because of competition over declining re- creasing, and fear of injury and loss of life is affecting public sources (Weladji & Tchamba, ), and thus when an in- and political support for crocodile conservation. We studied creasing number of people are crowded into a limited area of conflicts between people and estuarine crocodiles land, human–wildlife conflicts are likely to increase. Such Crocodylus porosus across socio-economic dimensions, conflicts commonly arise when wildlife cause damage to using a spatio-temporal database. We collected data on crops, or kill livestock or game, and occasionally they in- crocodile attacks that occurred during –, through volve attacks on people (Inskip & Zimmermann, ). questionnaires including open- and close-ended questions, Human–wildlife conflict is a growing problem world- administered in villages of five blocks of the Indian wide (Woodroffe et al., ), and crocodilians are one Sundarban. Most of the attacks (%) occurred during win- of the major groups involved (Lamarque et al., ). ter (December–February), followed by the early monsoon Attacks by crocodiles and alligators are increasing in (May–July; %). Almost % of victims were prawn seed many parts of the world (Langley, ), including in devel- collectors and were – years old, and .% of victims oped nations (e.g. by saltwater crocodiles Crocodylus poro- died as a result of the attacks. Female victims accounted sus in Australia, Caldicott et al., ; and by American for a higher percentage of deaths (.%) than male victims alligators Alligator mississippiensis in the USA, Langley, (.%). Crocodile attacks were more common in the ). Crocodiles are top predators and keystone species, daytime than at night, with .% of the killings occurring and perform an important role in maintaining the biodiver- during .–.. Most of the cases were recorded from sity, structure and function of freshwater ecosystems Gosaba (%), followed by Patharpratima (.%) and (Thorbjarnarson, ; Ross, ; Leslie & Spotila, ; Namkhana (.%) blocks. The mean number of incidents Glen et al., ). per year was ., with vulnerability and mortality rates of With the exception of ecotourism, interactions between . and ., respectively, per , persons. Existing people and crocodiles are rarely positive (McGregor, management practices are insufficient to eliminate the risk ), and developing ways to reduce conflict is essential of crocodile attacks and ensure the conservation of the to mitigate the loss of both human life and livestock Sundarban ecosystem. A comprehensive management plan (Fergusson, ). Large carnivores are often highly valued for reducing dependency on forest resources is needed to at a global scale but have a low or negative economic value at minimize human–crocodile conflict. a local scale (Dickman et al., ). To address this, local rev- enue from carnivore presence should outweigh the costs of Keywords Crocodylus porosus, estuarine crocodile, fisher, coexistence (McManus et al., ), such as through tourism human–crocodile conflict, India, prawn seed collector, or payments for presence. Management approaches to Sundarban human–crocodile conflict include capture and relocation, and lethal control, of crocodiles. These actions need to be carefully monitored, as crocodiles are an economically im- portant species (MacGregor, ). Introduction There are three species of crocodiles in India: the estuar- s human populations continue to increase, people are ine or saltwater crocodile, the marsh or freshwater crocodile Aincreasingly encroaching on natural areas. As a result, Crocodylus palustris and the gharial Gavialis gangeticus. All the relationship between people and wildlife is often three species were formerly found in the Sundarban but the current status of freshwater crocodiles and gharials in the re- gion in unknown (Vyas, ). The estuarine crocodile is the CHANDAN SURABHI DAS (Corresponding author) Department of Geography, largest marine reptile in India, and its population has de- Barasat Government College, Barasat, West Bengal, India E-mail [email protected] clined as a result of indiscriminate poaching for its valuable skin (Mandal & Nandi, ), loss of habitat, and water pol- RABINDRANATH JANA Sociological Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, West Bengal, India lution (Das & Bandyopadhyay, ). There is little infor- Received June . Revision requested August . mation available on conflict between people and estuarine Accepted November . First published online August . crocodiles in the Sundarban but historical records reference Oryx, 2018, 52(4), 661–668 © 2017 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605316001502 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.226, on 02 Oct 2021 at 10:55:21, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605316001502 662 C. S. Das and R. Jana its existence. During –, when tiger Panthera tigris hunting was permitted, it was perceived that killing of peo- ple by tigers decreased and the major threat to human life was from crocodiles (Curtis, ; Vyas, ). Estuarine crocodiles currently inhabit , km of the Indian Sundarban, concentrated mostly in the Saptamukhi, Thakuran, Choto Noubanki, and Mechua Khal areas (Chaudhuri, ). Human–crocodile conflicts have increased since , mainly as a result of large-scale human encroach- ment into the crocodile’s territories. Our objectives were to determine the nature, extent and causes of conflict between people and estuarine crocodiles in the Sundarban, using a spatio-temporal database, and to suggest appropriate manage- ment and mitigation strategies to reduce conflict. Study area The Sundarban is one of several areas in India prone to croco- dile attacks, and was chosen as the study area because of its FIG. 1 Location of the five study blocks in the Indian Sundarban. accessibility. The undivided Sundarban (i.e. the combined mangrove region of India and Bangladesh before ,com- included both open-ended and fixed-response questions, prising c. , km ) is the world’s largest tidal mangrove and was conducted with the head of the household or his/ forest (Chaudhuri & Choudhury, ), accounting for % her representative. of mangrove area globally (Khan, ). Reclamation of the Three problems were considered during the survey: () Indian part of the Sundarban began as early as some non-fatal attacks are not reported to the local govern- (Pargiter, ), and during the next centuries c. , km ment, () incidents may be exaggerated, and () responses of the tidal forests were converted to farmland and could be based on anecdotal evidence. These biases were habitations. The study was confined to the five community de- minimized by means of a neutral introduction and non- velopment blocks (Basanti, Gosaba, Kultali, Patharpratima leading question order (Milner-Gulland and Rowcliffe, and Namkhana) adjacent to the forest fringe areas, with a ), and non-reported incidents were identified and re- total area of km covering both reclaimed land and forest corded through the door-to-door survey. areas (Fig. ). The study area supports a rapidly growing Thirty villages were purposively selected on the basis of population of . million people, with a mean density of their location adjacent to forest or river. Thereafter, guided . per km (Census of India, ). by the expert opinion of knowledgeable local people, we compiled a preliminary list of households in which either at least one family member was killed or injured during Methods –, or family members depended primarily or During March –April we collected data using two secondarily on aquatic resources. The list included , χ methods. Firstly, we compiled records of crocodile attacks households. Both quantitative methods ( test), using collected by the local government (i.e. Gram Panchayat SPSS . (IBM, Armonk, USA), and qualitative methods and Block Primary Health Centres) and non-government (e.g. focus group discussion) were used to analyse the data. agencies (i.e. Tagore Society for Rural Development in Gosaba, South Sundarban Janakalyan Sangha Society Information in Kakdwip, and Juktibadi Sanskritik Sanstha, Results Canning). Secondly, community surveys were conducted with the help of local people, using questionnaires and semi- We recorded incidents of human–crocodile conflict dur- structured interviews. These surveys were conducted ing –, and household-level socio-economic data door-to-door in the villages of the selected blocks. Data for each case. Most of the victims (.%, n = ) were were collected on locality (forest range, river, village and tiger prawn seed collectors (.%), crab collectors block), date, time, activity of the victim at the time of con- (.%) or fishers (.%; Table ). People whose primary flict, primary and secondary occupation of the victim, result occupation was prawn seed collection were the worst of the conflict, depredation, reflexive fear, and the role of ac- affected (.%), followed by crab collection (.%) companying persons following attack. The questionnaire and fishing (.%). Oryx, 2018, 52(4), 661–668 © 2017 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605316001502 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.226, on 02 Oct 2021 at 10:55:21, subject