Figure - available from: Biodiversity and Conservation
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The left and the right extremities represent negative coexistence and positive coexistence/conflict. The continuums in the grey box are wildlife spatial and temporal continuums and the continuum in the beige box represents human behavior towards wildlife. The inverted triangle (movable along the continuum) represents a situation wherein an animal might display positive or negative occupancy of a shared landscape in a continuum. It may change its natural activity pattern in a shared landscape to a varying degree, here, negative signifies no change and positive signifies significant change. Similarly, human behavior towards an animal may range from stewardship, neutral to non-lethal, and lethal from positive to negative
Source publication
Human-wildlife interactions can range from reverence to extreme conflict. Conservationists have come to the realization that humans and wildlife have always coexisted together in shared landscapes across the globe. Thus, understanding and acting upon the prospects of human-wildlife coexistence (HWCo) is now a crucial component of biodiversity conse...
Citations
The negative interaction between humans and wildlife in the Indian Himalayas has increased in recent decades. Studies on human-wildlife negative interactions have primarily focused on protected areas. However, research on such interactions is limited in regions like the Indian part of Kailash Sacred Landscape (KSL), where wildlife and humans share a common space. This study examined the patterns of crop damage, livestock depredation, human fatalities, seasonal and temporal variations, location-specific factors, and critical variables contributing to negative humanwildlife interactions in KSL India. We examined 574 incidences of livestock depredation, 123 incidences of human injury/death between 1984-2016, and 560 crop damage incidences between 2002-2017. Most incidences of human injury/ death and livestock depredation were by common leopards, followed by Asiatic black bears. Maize was the highest raided crop (n=202), followed by wheat (n=190) and paddy (n=168). Maximum incidences of crop loss were reported in 2017 (n=76), and the lowest was in 2002 (n=5). The hotspot maps of crop damage and livestock depredation revealed that the negative interaction between humans and wildlife was highest in the southern part of the landscape. The result predicted 195 villages as hotspots in the Indian part of KSL. Villages were identified at the forest range level. We found that 11 villages in Askot, 12 in Munshiyari, 17 in Berinag, 15 in Dharchula, 36 in Didihat, 61 in Gangolihat, and 43 in Pithoragarh forest ranges are severely affected by negative interaction with wildlife.
