Human beings cannot live alone on the planet Earth. They need a host of other things to support their survival. For that saving Environment and understanding the importance as well as otherwise the negative consequences of environment is the mantra developed to represent several acts which aim to preserve sanctity of our environment. Environmentalists have defined environment as the natural habitat around us, essential for life to thrive in. It constitutes air, water, soil, animals and human beings. Our environment suffers from several risk factors. Some of them are Anthropogenic while others are natural. It is of least importance whether its caused by human activities or not but what matters is that we should take action at the earliest. Doing nothing will ultimately lead to severe consequences for our environment. Humans have a sort of blind spot concerning the degree of dependence we have on our surroundings. We mindlessly build and industrialize our habitat under the banner of development and advancement only to later on realize that we have been destroying our surroundings all along. We still despite being educated and knowing the severe consequences, steadily go on with our reckless way of life without the slightest awareness of what we are doing by destroying mother nature. It is very important to understand the sensitivity of the issue and save our environment. Saving Environment and consequently saving ourselves is in the hands of each and every one of us. Small changes made to our everyday lifestyle are all we need to do. Saving Environment will enable the nature to thrive again and reduce the survival needed. The environment will be back to its resourceful nature. In this regard we have been celebrating environment day every year around a particular theme and slogan with alternate host country. But the greedy nature of human has always overpowered him and he is destroying his own environment without knowing drastic consequences. One of the main environmental problems is the habitat destruction or habitat loss, in which natural habitat is incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby reducing biodiversity and species abundance. Habitat loss is probably the greatest threat to the variety of life on this planet today. It is identified as a main threat to 85% of all species described in the IUCN’s Red List.The biggest reason that put biodiversity at risk is the “Man Wildlife Conflicts (HWC)” Which refers to the negative interactions between human and wild animals, with undesirable consequences for both people and their resources and wildlife and their habitats. Human beings because of their supremacy have become a big threat to the biodiversity. Because of his selfish gains man has diverted rivers, distributed forests, converted forest land into the agricultural lands which thus resulted in the destruction of many species of flora and fauna. These activities have led to the habitat loss for the wildlife resulting in man wildlife conflicts. An incident of elephants attack on humans is common now a days. There have been a number of instances when Tigers, leopards and Cobras have been spotted in the colonies lying on the outskirts of the forests.
While adopting the above-mentioned strategies to minimize the conflict, it is also important and mandatory for all of us to develop a culture of tolerance in ourselves as viewing elephants, tigers, and leopards as pests or threats will only escalate the human-wildlife conflict.
When we destroy the natural dwelling place of wild animals, they attack the fields to which fanners oppose resulting in a severe conflict between the two sides. Instances of man wildlife conflicts keeps on coming to lime light from several states of India including Jammu and Kashmir. According to a report during 2004-2009 about 200 people have been killed by elephants in Samblapur,Orissa and in retaliation about 100 elephants were killed and near about 30 were injured by the people. Likewise in our Kashmir valley dozens of people have been killed by leopards and Bears during past few years in the outskirts of villages. The instances have increased in past few months where small children were mulled to death by leopards and some people attacked by Bears. More often leopards have been spotted in the different villages leading to a sense of fear in the minds of people. According to a study sponsored by the J&K Wildlife Department, titled “Predator Alert” found that “52% of all leopard attacks in Kashmir occurred close to habitations”, this is because the natural dwelling of the wild animals has been destroyed. This conflict leads to loss of life who live near the forests and property damage as well. Killing of livestock by wild animals can destroy income source of agro-pastoralists who depend exclusively on cultivation and production of livestock. Safety Tips for Unexpected Wildlife Encounters Man-animal conflicts have bad consequences not only for the mankind and the society but also for the wildlife. Though we cannot completely avoid the man-animal conflict, it can be minimized and controlled to a large extent if some of the following measures are adopted sincerely, like to stop the poaching of animals, wildlife corridors will provide a safe pathway to animals in the human-inhabited and developed areas and most importantly Awareness Programmes to create awareness among people and sensitize them about the Do s and Don ts in the forest areas to minimize the conflicts between man and animal. A united effort is needed In order to be truly effective, prevention of human-wildlife conflict has to involve the full scope of society, international organizations, governments, NGOs, communities, consumers and individuals. Solutions are possible, but only when we really want to find a solution for some problem. While adopting the above-mentioned strategies to minimize the conflict, it is also important and mandatory for all of us to develop a culture of tolerance in ourselves as viewing elephants, tigers, and leopards as pests or threats will only escalate the human-wildlife conflict.
(Author is pursuing B.Sc Hons (Botany) at Islamia College of Science & Commerce Srinagar. Views expressed are exclusively his own)
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