Milind watve, Sonal Prabhulkar

Wild herbivores eating up crops is a major issue in human wildlife conflict. Although there is substantial literature that identifies the conflict, tries to estimate the extent of economic loss, its consequences and also suggests some mitigation measures, many fundamental issues remain unaddressed. A number of speculations about the root causes behind the problem have been made but they haven’t been tested as alternative hypotheses. We make a list of alternative hypotheses, collected from a wide variety of sources, evaluate their plausibility and logical integrity, suggest differential testable predictions and their differential implications for mitigation measures. It is important to identify the locale specific causes of the conflict because the efficacy of mitigation measures would crucially depend upon the predominant underlying cause. Measures applied without a good understanding of the causal factors might turn out to be ineffective and even counterproductive. Substantial research needs to be focused on differentially testing the predictions of the alternative hypotheses in order to be able to handle the problem and promote healthy coexistence of wildlife with indigenous people.