Living with Large Carnivores
Shared territory
The Terai region, which overlaps the India-Nepal border, is a landscape rich in biodiversity. It is home to Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris), Indian leopards (Panthera pardus fusca) and sloth bears (Melursus ursinus).
Bengal tigers are classified as Endangered according to the IUCN Red List, while Indian leopards are Near Threatened and sloth bears listed as Vulnerable.
This region is also home to millions of people, many of them subsistence farmers, and is the site of increasing agricultural use and development. As more people push into already fragmented habitats, the distribution of these large wild carnivores increasingly overlaps with communities and the farms they depend upon.
For leopards and tigers, cattle represent an easy alternative to their typical ‘wild’ prey species. This leads to significant livestock losses for people in the region. Tigers, leopards and sloth bears also encounter people directly, especially when people venture into or near forested habitats, either to graze stock or collect forest resources like fuelwood.
A volatile situation
Such encounters can lead to violent and sometimes fatal clashes. This sometimes leads to the persecution of many other animals in the large carnivore population – adding extra pressure to already threatened species.
Despite a history of negative interactions, a situation of human-wildlife co-existence persists in many parts of this landscape. However, as natural habitats disappear and the success of conservation programmes leads to growing tiger populations, there is a risk a of human-large carnivore relationships turning more volatile.
It is critical to work with the communities that face the brunt of these negative interactions with wildlife before public tolerance of these carnivores is too deeply damaged. Such escalation would severely undermine decades of conservation efforts and drive further violence, putting more human and carnivore lives at risk.
The Living with Large Carnivores project was initiated by Chester Zoo, The National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) and the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) to prevent this.
A model for coexistence
The project is based in the eastern most part of the Terai region of the Himalayan foothills, mainly in the state of Bihar in India and Chitwan region of Nepal. Here, the Chitwan National Park in Nepal and Valmiki Tiger Reserve in India provide a swathe of protected landscape and support many people who regularly interact with wildlife. The project focusses on six villages which have experienced high levels of negative interactions with large carnivores.
In the future, the practices used in these village should provide a model of human-large carnivore coexistence for use in other human-wildlife conflict zones. The Chester Zoo team collaborates closely with partners on the project, providing scientific expertise and helping shape project initiatives.
Since its inception, the Living with Large Carnivores project has shown real impact. Livestock losses in project villages have reduced since predator proof pens and other measures were introduced. Since last year, a total of 754 households have built predator proof pens across project villages in India and Nepal and all beneficiaries are actively maintaining them.
Signs of success
Farmers have agreed to take part in the testing of new techniques to prevent cattle depredation by large carnivores, including marking eyes on the rumps of buffaloes and cows to deter stealth predators, and to adopt improved livestock breeding practices which are predominantly stall fed instead of garzing them in the forests.
The primary response teams, who have received training in conflict management and mitigation, have intervened in several incidents. They have supported people affected by conflict, offering advice to people in need of government compensation, and defused potentially negative situations, allowing large carnivores to depart interactions peacefully without being captured and removed.
This is a complex and multi-faceted approach to an equally complex problem. The aim is for these interventions to become self-sustaining as the people within the affected communities see the benefits of these measures. Ultimately, by raising awareness and introducing practical solutions, the project promotes human-wildlife coexistence in the long term.
Project activities include:
Providing media training, allowing conservationists and reporters to engage with each other, ensuring human-wildlife conflict is reported in a more balanced, less sensationalised way
Providing wool spinning training and handicrafts upskilling for people (especially women) in Terai communities, offering them alternative income streams. This reduces the risk of contact with wildlife and dependence on subsistence farming techniques
Organising cross-community and cross-border skill sharing in goat and duck keeping, plant nursery management and community-based mushroom and honey cultivation
Organising opportunities to share best practices, such as inviting Nepalese representatives to India to familiarise themselves with fuel efficient cookstoves. This reduces the need to collect firewood in zones where human-wildlife conflict may occur
Further cross-border collaboration: Indian representatives have travelled to Nepal to witness the effective use of predator-proof pens and sheltered cattle stalls. The Living with Large Carnivores project has provided construction materials for these
Supporting the creation of a community network of volunteers trained and equipped as first responders to incidents of potential human-wildlife conflict
Carrying out surveys to assess the impact of human-wildlife conflict on the welfare of people living in these areas
Creative Commons images by Vickey Chauhan and Aditya Pal.