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PRELIMINARY STUDY ON CROP ECONOMIC LOSS, MITIGATING MEASURES AND PEOPLE'S PERCEPTIONS ON HUMAN-WILDLIFE CONFLICT ESPECIALLY IN AGRICULTURAL FIELDS IN THE UPPER REACHES OF THE NILGIRIS, TAMIL NADU, SOUTHERN INDIA

Samson A*, Ramakrishnan B

Human-wildlife conflicts occurred when human beings take negative actions on wildlife and vice-versa. These research works are aimed to investigate the driving forces for human-wildlife conflict and mitigating measures to support policymakers and conservationists from October 2019 to March 2020. Two sets of questionnaires namely ‘precise and closed’ and ‘broad and openended’ were developed to assess crop economic loss, mitigating measures and people's perceptions of Human-wildlife conflict in Upper reaches of the Nilgiris. A total of 120 agricultural peoples were interviewed of which 81% (n=97) of the males. The literacy profile revealed that (41%) were illiterate. Crop cultivation result sows that mostly cultivated crops are carrot (n=58) followed by potato (n=46) beetroot (n=10) and Green Peas (n=6). Most of the respondents were opined that the wild boars are reasoned for heavy crop damage than other wild animals and also wild animal populations increased is the most important reason for crop depredation (n=80). There are five different measures used by the peoples as a deterrent to dive away wild animals. Among the measures, the Battery charged power fencing incurred a huge amount (Rs. 50000/acre) for installation. CEBI result showed that tuber crops such as Carrot and Potato were severely damaged and benefit to the farmers was very low according to their CEBI values 0.46 and 0.52 respectively. In a nutshell, this present study found that this is a time to bring new policy level management plans to resolve the crop depredation caused by wild boars in the Upper Nilgiris. Also, this study is a pioneer attempt in the upper Nilgiris to through light on the wild animals menace, especially on crop depredation.