Proximate drivers of human-tiger interface and conflict in Sariska and Panna Tiger Reserves, India.

Abstract

Human-wildlife conflict poses the most complex challenge to achieving ‘coexistence’. It has resulted in the decline of many species globally. Tigers are one of the three most conflict-prone large-bodied felids in the world. In some of its range states, about 50% of tiger deaths have reportedly occurred due to retaliatory killing by humans in response to domestic cattle depredation. Because of the implications of human-tiger conflict (HTC) on the persistence of tiger especially in human-dominated landscapes, management of HTC is of great conservation importance. However, efficient management steps can only be taken when the reasons for conflict are exposed. For this purpose, we need to identify and understand the factors operating in a conflict that determines its occurrence in a certain place and certain time i.e., the drivers of HTC. This study thus introduces an analytical framework, the conflict determinant model, to study human-carnivore conflict aimed at identifying various socio-ecological factors linked with conflict and model these factors to understand the mechanism and dynamics of HTC in the two study sites, viz. Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR), Rajasthan and Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR), Madhya Pradesh, India, with the goal to help design effective mitigation measures. To identify ecological drivers of HTC, data was collected on key habitat parameters for tigers i.e., prey, cover, water, and anthropogenic disturbance using line transect, circular plots, camera traps, and GIS. Additionally, to identify biological drivers, data on biological parameters of the tigers involved in conflict, viz. ID, sex, age, home range, and physiological stress were also collected