Wildlife damage to crops not monitored: Experts call for data systems, specific action plans

Wildlife raids on Indian farms are stripping fields and pushing entire cropping systems. But country lacks national database to calculate these losses.New policy paper calls for National Human-Animal Conflict Mission and species- and context-specific action. A herd of elephants passing through overnight can leave a paddy field stripped bare by morning. Boar tear through groundnut plots in a matter of hours. Nilgai and peafowl return week after week until little is left worth guarding. Elephant conflict alone was estimated to affect between 0.8 and 1 million hectares of cropland every year in India, touching nearly a million rural families. In the Western Ghats, farmers growing banana and arecanut report annual losses approaching or exceeding Rs 1 lakh in severely affected years. In Himachal Pradesh’s hill zones, a field study found an average economic loss of Rs 25,358 per affected farm, with cultivated area shrinking by 12-17 per cent in conflict-prone zones. A 2021 ...