Baskaran Nagarajan, Sathishkumar Selvarasu, Vanitha Varadharajan, Arjun Mani, Keerthi Perumal, Bandhala Nikshepan Goud
Mammalian Biology Lab, Department of Zoology & Wildlife Biology, A.V.C. College (Autonomous) Mannampandal, Mayiladuthurai 609 305, India.
Department of Zoology, Dharmapuram Gnanambigai Government Arts College for Women, Mayiladuthurai 609 001, India.
Animals (Basel). 2024 Nov 7;14(22):3193. doi: 10.3390/ani14223193.
Since the human population is growing beyond the earth's ability to sustain it, more people are being brought into contact with wildlife, leading to increasing human-wildlife conflict. The Asian elephant, a wide-ranging megaherbivore, is being increasingly threatened by human-elephant conflict [HEC]. Its conservation depends on identifying the causes of HEC and implement measure to mitigate the HEC effectively. We studied the drivers of HEC among five forest divisions in Western Ghats, India, that support a high density of elephants across Asia. Comparing the last six years' data on HEC with 26 ecological covariates in the GLMM framework, we identified spatiotemporal variations and drivers of crop, and property damages and human casualties. Spatially, HEC was highest in the territorial division and lowest in those declared as Protected Areas earlier. The comparison of crop damage with covariates showed that crop damage decreased with the grass biomass index, elephant density, extent of dry-thorn, and deciduous habitats, and forest range area, while it increased with adult male % and forest range perimeter. Similarly, the property damage by elephants increased with crop damage frequency and human settlement/cultivation area, but decreased with grass biomass, forest range area, and deciduous habitat area. Human casualties due to elephants increased with property damage, ambient temperature, and forest range perimeter, but decreased with grass biomass. Overall, the decrease in HEC with grass biomass, and the increase in HEC with human settlement and forest range perimeter indicate that anthropogenic pressure that decreases the grass biomass and degrades the habitat is the likely root cause of HEC, and minimizing it would reduce overall HEC.
由于人类数量的增长超出了地球的承受能力，越来越多的人与野生动物接触，导致人类与野生动物的冲突不断增加。亚洲象是一种分布广泛的大型食草动物，正日益受到人类与大象冲突（HEC）的威胁。其保护取决于确定HEC的原因并实施有效减轻HEC的措施。我们研究了印度西高止山脉五个森林分区中HEC的驱动因素，这些分区在亚洲拥有高密度的大象。在广义线性混合模型（GLMM）框架下，将过去六年的HEC数据与26个生态协变量进行比较，我们确定了时空变化以及作物、财产损失和人员伤亡的驱动因素。在空间上，领土分区的HEC最高，而早期被宣布为保护区的分区中HEC最低。作物损失与协变量的比较表明，作物损失随着草生物量指数、大象密度、干刺范围和落叶栖息地范围以及森林区域面积的增加而减少，而随着成年雄性比例和森林区域周长的增加而增加。同样，大象造成的财产损失随着作物损失频率和人类定居/耕种面积的增加而增加，但随着草生物量、森林区域面积和落叶栖息地面积的增加而减少。大象造成的人员伤亡随着财产损失、环境温度和森林区域周长的增加而增加，但随着草生物量的增加而减少。总体而言，HEC随草生物量的减少以及随人类定居和森林区域周长的增加表明，减少草生物量和破坏栖息地的人为压力可能是HEC的根本原因，减少这种压力将降低总体HEC。
