Title
A study of Tiger human conflict in buffer zone of the Corbett Tiger Reserve: Protected area-people relationship
Author(s)
Musavi A., Khan J.A., Kumar S., Khan A., Malik P.K., Kushwaha S.P.S., Khati D.S., Sarin G.D.
Published
2006
Publisher
International Journal of Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Abstract
People's dependence on the buffer zone (BZ) of Corbett-Tiger Reserve (CTR), resulting conflicts and people's attitudes to alternatives and conservation were studied. There were 123 villages and 17 Gujjar deras dependent on CTR, mostly for fuelwood followed by grazing of livestock and collection of grasses. Block-wise assessment of dependence for fuelwood and grass fodder showed that 42.3% of the forest blocks were under high degree of fuelwood dependence; most of these are located in the southern part of the buffer zone. The dependence for grass fodder was high on 34.6% of the forest blocks and these were located in the northwest and the southeast of the BZ. The BZ forest was less degraded in the northeast part than in other zones. Overall, the southeastern part of the BZ was under high biotic pressure and also had higher incidence of tiger-human conflict in terms of number of livestock killed and therefore, needed greater attention. We identified three major wildlife-related problems of which the threat to livestock by tigers and crop depredation by ungulates were reported in > 80% of the villages and deras. Majority of the people identified water, fuelwood, grazing by livestock, fodder and timber as major benefits derived from CTR. Some (17%) people were willing to switch to fuelwood alternatives but only 3% were willing to buy fuelwood while >50% of the respondents were willing to steal and agitate rather than go without it. Majority of the respondents (> 50%) also had negative attitudes to restrictions on fodder extraction and livestock grazing, with only 6% willing to buy fodder and < 25% willing to grow fodder on their fields. Attitudes towards conservation were found positive with majority of the people considering conservation of plants and animals beneficial to them. © International Scientific Publications, New Delhi.
Keywords
anthropogenic effect; buffer zone; environmental assessment; grazing; livestock; nature conservation; nature-society relations; protected area; Animalia; Poaceae; Ungulata
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PUB12195