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| Poonch residents learn to live in harmony with wildlife | | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | Apr 15
Amid the fear-psychosis created by the repeated human-animal conflicts in far flung areas of Jammu and Kashmir, residents of Poonch district are learning to live in harmony with wildlife.
Reports revealed that state forest department in association with Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) has launched a massive plan, Rapid Action Project (RAP) to avoid human-animal conflict, which has taken human lives across the state.
Human-wildlife conflicts have been significantly reduced in Poonch following the lanch of Rapid Action Project (RAP) funded by the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), sources told News Agency of Kashmir adding that number of such conflicts have been avoided in the area since the launch of the programme.
Using a multi-pronged approach involving the participation of local villagers in conservation, equipping the forest department and increasing the intelligence outreach, the project has, within a few months of its implementation, succeeded in preventing a number of conflicts with the Asiatic black bear among others.
Flanked on three sides by the Line of Control (LoC), Poonch suffered from a chronic human-wildlife conflict situation. Through decades of political instability, uncontrolled resource extraction had led to severe habitat fragmentation resulting in the formation of a hill terrain with patches of discontinuous forests leaving the inhabitants with no choice but to risk conflicts.
The fear propelled by insurgency and the consequential lack of will among the concerned authorities had aggravated the situation to such an extent that harassing and often killing the conflict animals was the most common form of retaliation adopted by the local people against the 'intrusion'.
About 18 Asiatic black bears were reportedly killed in conflicts in 2006. Conflicts with common leopards were also encountered. On October 6, 2007, a snow leopard, one of the rarest mammals in India, was killed.
Under the project, forest guards have been trained on conflict management and provided better equipment to tackle difficult situations and for intelligence gathering. Village Man-Animal Conflict Management (VMACM) committees were created involving elders and educated youth from villages to help control conflict situations before the arrival of trained forest staff.
The WTI-funded RAPs are generally of short duration but with effectively far-reaching consequences. Apart from the immediate benefits of reducing conflicts and casualties, the RAP has achieved many long-term and sustainable conservation successes. Among these, the more significant is the voluntary involvement of the local people in conservation activities. |
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