Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav on Friday inaugurated the Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Human-Wildlife Conflict at the Wildlife Institute of India-Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (WII-SACON), Coimbatore, and launched the National Human-Wildlife Conflict Portal.
The inauguration was followed by a national workshop on human-wildlife conflict, bringing together policymakers, forest officials, scientists, researchers, technology experts and conservation practitioners from across the country to discuss strategies for reducing conflicts between humans and wildlife. The event was also attended by Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Kirti Vardhan Singh.
Addressing the gathering, Yadav said human-wildlife conflict has emerged as one of India’s major conservation and development challenges due to increasing interactions between people and wildlife caused by habitat fragmentation, changing land-use patterns and expanding human activities.
“Our approach should be solution-oriented, instead of being problem-oriented, utilising modern technological advances,” Yadav said.
The Minister said the Centre of Excellence, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 7th meeting of the National Board for Wildlife, will serve as a national hub for research, innovation, policy support, capacity building and dissemination of best practices for scientific and evidence-based management of human-wildlife conflict.
Yadav stressed the need for developing strategies to manage conflicts involving tigers outside tiger reserves, leopards and elephants. He called for mission-mode awareness campaigns in both urban and rural areas to educate people on dealing with wildlife encounters.
He emphasised that conflict mitigation should involve area-specific and species-specific approaches and said proactive measures by forest departments were essential to reduce damage to human settlements and crops.
The Minister called for coordinated action involving local communities and multiple stakeholders, along with the use of advanced technologies and innovative conservation practices.
“Coexistence and harmony, instead of conflict, should be the mantra of ecological sustainability,” Yadav said.
Speaking at the event, Kirti Vardhan Singh said successful wildlife conservation efforts have resulted in increased human-wildlife interactions, turning the issue into a major socio-economic challenge apart from being a conservation concern.
He stressed the need to balance wildlife protection with socio-economic development and said the Centre of Excellence would play a key role in capacity building among officials and communities. He added that the centre would support the use of advanced technologies for data documentation while preserving traditional knowledge related to wildlife conservation and peaceful coexistence.
During the inaugural session, Yadav launched the National Human-Wildlife Conflict Portal, a digital platform aimed at improving data management, knowledge sharing and decision-making for conflict mitigation across the country.
The first edition of the publication series ‘Current Status of Human-Wildlife Conflict in India: An Overview’ was also released. The report provides an assessment of the current status, trends and emerging challenges related to human-wildlife conflict in India.
The workshop included a live demonstration of the portal, along with expert sessions and panel discussions on human-elephant conflict, human-big cat conflict, and the role of technology and innovation in conflict mitigation.
