Man vs Wild gets real

As the headline suggests, the ongoing conflict between the humans and the animals is no less than a war now. In India, the data shows that one person has been killed every day for the past three to four years by the wild animals. If we go by the statistics of last year, a count of 1,144 people have been killed from April 2014 to May 2017.

The conflict between the humans and the animals is one of the biggest conservation challenges faced in India. The absence of proper habitat for the wildlife is a reason for the conflict between the two. Another reason is humans cutting down the forests for their own use and not even thinking a bit about the wildlife. But the story doesn’t end here. The animals are targeted too, by the poachers or sometimes by the running vehicles.

In Assam alone, every year at least 30-40 people die, while dozens of animals lose their lives. It was reported 40 elephants in Assam died in a course of 100 days last year. The cases of wild animals intruding in Guwahati are not unheard of. Starting from the sparsely populated hilly terrain and the foothills to the busy urban localities, cases registering wild animals’ intrusion have been recorded all over Guwahati. However, during 2015-2017, 316 poachers have been arrested by the police in the state.

This conflict threatens the very existence of almost all the living species. It has become a permanent feature of the country now. Around 225 wild animals died of various other causes in 2016 and 2017. The management should find some measures for a better environment around the two, the animals and the humans.