Bayani Abhijeet, Tiwade Dilip, Dongre Ashok, Dongre Aravind P, Phatak Rasika, Watve Milind
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, Dr. Homi Bhabha Road, Pashan, Pune 411008, Maharashtra, India.
Department of Biodiversity, Abasaheb Garaware College, Pune, India.
PLoS One. 2016 Apr 19;11(4):e0153854. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0153854. eCollection 2016.
Crop raiding by wild herbivores close to an area of protected wildlife is a serious problem that can potentially undermine conservation efforts. Since there is orders of magnitude difference between farmers' perception of damage and the compensation given by the government, an objective and realistic estimate of damage was found essential. We employed four different approaches to estimate the extent of and patterns in crop damage by wild herbivores along the western boundary of Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in the state of Maharashtra, central India. These approaches highlight different aspects of the problem but converge on an estimated damage of over 50% for the fields adjacent to the forest, gradually reducing in intensity with distance. We found that the visual damage assessment method currently employed by the government for paying compensation to farmers was uncorrelated to and grossly underestimated actual damage. The findings necessitate a radical rethinking of policies to assess, mitigate as well as compensate for crop damage caused by protected wildlife species.
在靠近野生动物保护区的区域，野生食草动物的作物掠夺是一个严重问题，可能会破坏保护工作。由于农民对损失的认知与政府给予的补偿之间存在数量级差异，因此客观、现实地估计损失至关重要。我们采用了四种不同方法来估计印度中部马哈拉施特拉邦塔多巴 - 安达里老虎保护区西部边界沿线野生食草动物造成的作物损失程度和模式。这些方法突出了问题的不同方面，但都得出与森林相邻田地的估计损失超过50%，且损失强度随距离逐渐降低的结论。我们发现，政府目前用于向农民支付补偿的视觉损失评估方法与实际损失不相关且严重低估了实际损失。这些发现有必要对评估、减轻以及补偿受保护野生动物物种造成的作物损失的政策进行彻底反思。
