Editorial 1 : Why are human-wildlife conflicts escalating in Kerala?
Context
Over 600 people have lost their lives in Kerala since 2015 in conflict with animals.
About
- Forest covers nearly 30% of Kerala’s geographical area.
- For a relatively small State with an average width of just around 70 km and a population of more than 3.46 crore, this means numerous densely populated human settlements are located close to protected forest regions.
- Moreover, a large number of agricultural plantations too lie near wildlife habitats. This is especially true in the case of hilly reaches, which includes most of the heavily forested eastern part of the State.
- Although this situation makes human-animal conflict inevitable, in recent years, Kerala has seen a sharp increase in the number of such incidents with those living near forest fringes suffering crores of rupees worth of damage to livelihood, mostly due to frequent raids by elephants and wild boars.
The scale of human-animal conflict
- As per the State Forest department’s own study, Kerala witnessed human-wildlife conflict across 1,004 areas.
- The study recorded over 48,000 incidents of damage to major crops between 2013-14 and 2018-19.
- Wild elephants were involved in the highest number of incidents in the State.
- Pachyderms were responsible for most of the incidents.
- Wild boars, bonnet macaques and snakes are the others in this category.
- Elephants, bonnet macaques and wild boars have caused the most damage to farmers residing in forest fringe areas.
- Herbivores such as sambar, spotted deer and gaur too have contributed significantly to crop damage.
- Many livestock animals, including cattle, buffalo and goat, have been reported to have being killed or suffered injuries in such attacks.
Reasons for increase in conflicts
- Experts cite increased area under cultivation around wildlife habitats, changing cropping pattern, significant increase in the population of animals like elephants and tigers due to conservation efforts, and movement of livestock and humans in wildlife habitats during odd hours as the main reasons for the rise in human-wildlife conflict incidents.
- There has also been a substantial increase in the population of prolific breeders like wild boars and peacocks.
- However, increased number of incidents involving elephants are due to habitat depletion and fragmentation caused by human activities.
- Moreover, invasive alien species have reduced the availability of food and water.
- Monoculture of species such as eucalyptus and acacia has also adversely affected plant biodiversity.
The proposed solutions
- Elephant-proof trenches and solar power fences are widely used in Kerala, and they are considered largely effective, provided they are properly maintained.
- These fences are also often broken by people living nearby to let their cattle into the forests for grazing, and elephants too destroy the fences using their legs and tusks.
- To address the issue, the Forest department recommends hanging power fences that will be out of reach of elephants.
- Moreover, as part of the State government’s new eco-restoration policy, the Forest department is aiming to plant suitable indigenous plants (wild mango, wild gooseberry, and wild jackfruit) in the forest to ensure wild animals’ food security and dissuade them from entering agricultural lands.
- Such measures need to be supplemented by creating early warning systems that can track the movement of elephants and other dangerous animals using drones and watchers, so that people can avoid going to locations where they have been spotted.
- However, the above measures are not effective against wild boars. Although the Centre is yet to accept Kerala’s request to declare wild boars as vermin, the State government recently empowered local bodies to cull wild boars that pose a threat to agriculture crops or human life.
- The other options include capturing and neutering the boars, or relocating them to forests where there are predators like tigers and leopards.
Way forward
- Setting up an ESZ has been suggested by conservationists, retired Forest department officials and scientists as a way to reduce human-wildlife conflicts.
- However, in a State that is densely populated with severe land scarcity and a significant number of people living close to wildlife habitats, this would be difficult to implement.
Editorial 2 : Greece’s gateway to Asia, India’s gateway to Europe
Context
The state visit by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to New Delhi will be another important step in building a strategic relationship between India and Greece — a process which began with the historic visit of the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to Greece in August 2023.
About
- Ahead of the visit, Mr. Mitsotakis told that he is determined to deepen bilateral ties and cooperation in many fields, adding that India will find no better gateway to Europe and for Greece there is no better gateway to Asia than a close strategic relationship with India.
- India is perceived as an old and traditional friend of Greece, but also as a rising great power in the fast-changing global scene.
The importance of security and stability
- Greece and India are in many ways ‘prisoners’ of geography.
- They are located in areas strategically important to the global system but are areas that are at the same time geopolitically volatile.
- As recent events in the Red Sea have shown, the security, stability and prosperity of the East Mediterranean region, where Greece is situated, is vitally dependent on the security, stability and prosperity of the Indian Ocean region.
- More than ever before, the political leadership in India and Greece is aware of the compelling strategic reasons and urgency to build a strategic relationship between the two countries.
Cooperation at various levels
- The Indian Navy and Indian Air Force have been participating in joint exercises with the Greek armed forces and reciprocal exercises are planned from time to time.
- Businesses have also been looking at each other.
- A well-known Indian business family has made major investments in several companies in the food business in Greece.
- A mid-sized Indian shipping company has already opened a brokerage firm in Athens and looks to become a key player in the trans-Atlantic shipping market.
- A large systemic bank in Greece has tied up with a major Indian financial institution to sell mutual fund products globally.
- The idea of constructing the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEC) is gaining in salience.
- Greece has been a strong supporter of deeper EU-India relations and is now working to ensure the EU-India bilateral trade and investment agreement (BTIA) is rapidly concluded, which would be a further catalyst to bilateral economic ties.
Way forward
- The value of closer people-to-people ties that will preserve the heritage of our ancient linkages must not be ignored.
- There need to be more university student exchange programmes, more cultural exchanges and more media cooperation.
- Think tanks in both countries need to build more scholarship together.
- The year 2024 is a critical one for the world and for Europe, and it has become a critical year in the building of the Greece-India strategic partnership.