Fund flow for human-wildlife conflict management

Assam accounts for more than 56% of the total elephant population in the Northeast region. Human-elephant conflict (HEC) in the state causes the loss of lives of humans and elephants, while the affected human population also suffers huge economic losses due to the raiding of standing crops and destruction of dwelling houses by herds of wild elephants. Recent sightings of the Royal Bengal Tiger in the Silghat area and parts of the Kaliabor tea estate in the state have triggered apprehension about human-tiger conflict looming in those areas if timely responses to prevent it remain inadequate. It is baffling to know that while the intensity of HEC has increased over the years, the Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) could spend only 30% of the funds allocated to it under Project Elephant and Project Tiger combined. Project Elephant and Project Tiger were two standalone schemes until 2022–23 and were combined into a single scheme called “Project Tiger and Project Elephant” with effect from the financial year 2023–24. Information furnished by MoEFCC to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests, and Climate Change reveals that the actual expenditure for 2022–23 under these two schemes, against revised budget estimates of Rs 220 crore, was only Rs 65 crore till January this year, when only two months of the financial year were left. The Ministry provides financial and technical assistance to States and Union Territories under the two centrally sponsored schemes for protection and conservation of elephants and tigers, and their habitats. Key objectives of these schemes include reducing human-elephant and human-tiger conflict and preventing retaliatory killing. Assam accounting for all the eight elephants killed due to poisoning across 16 elephant range states over the three years from 2019–20 to 2021–22, six of those alone in 2021–22, is the tip of an iceberg. During this three-year period, 36 elephants were killed due to electrocution and 15 due to train-hits in the state, which point towards tougher challenges facing the protection and conservation of elephants in the state. The loss of 229 human lives in an elephant attack in Assam in this period speaks volumes about the fact that the preventive measures remain inadequate and are not providing the desired solution of bringing an end to the conflict situation. The Project Elephant has the provision of providing compensation to affected communities for losses of lives and property due to HEC. The management of HEC and preventing poaching and other crimes such as poisoning elephants are primarily the responsibility of the state government. Judicious and timely utilization of funds available under the scheme by the states can mitigate the conflict to some extent, but the entire process of disbursal of compensation being fast and non-cumbersome is crucial to prevent retaliatory killing of elephants. The government says critical elephant habitats are notified as ‘Elephant Reserves” for focus and synergy in elephant conservation and to reduce conflict, and 33 Elephant Reserves have been established in 14 major elephant states. Often, projects such as coal and other mineral mining, exploration of oil and gas, highway construction, and hydropower projects lead to the fragmentation of elephant corridors and elephant reserves. Unless the problem is addressed at the stage of assessing the environmental impact and cumulative impact of diversion of forest to facilitate such development projects, the incidence of herds of wild elephants raiding the nearest human habitat in search of fodder and shelter is bound to increase. Funds are available under various centrally sponsored schemes for the development of wildlife habitat, including the compensatory afforestation fund for improvement of elephant habitat by augmenting water sources, planting fodder trees, regeneration of bamboo, and better utilization, which can reduce the HEC and other man-animal conflict by reducing contact between humans and wild animals. A comprehensive impact evaluation undertaken by MoEFFC and elephant range states can be useful in identifying the critical gaps that continue to exist at the policy as well as execution levels. Renewed efforts initiated by the Ministry included the release of a field manual for frontline staff to manage HEC and a capacity-building workshop for railway officials for sensitizing them on minimizing railway-induced elephant mortality and ground truthing of elephant corridors in India, so as to create better connectivity between the different landscapes and elephant herds for maintaining genetic diversity. The parliamentary panel’s report, however, brings out the hard reality that funding for schemes aimed at conservation of elephant and tiger habitat is inadequate. It points out that the total allocation for tiger reserves in 2016-17 was Rs 375 crore when the number of tiger reserves was 50, and while the number has increased to 58, the budget estimates for 2023-24 have not gone up “commensurate to the increasing expenditures due to the increase in area of tiger and elephant reserves, cost of manpower, etc.” Apart from adequate fund flow, timely utilization is a must for conservation of elephant and tiger habitats and effective conflict management.