International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development

author(s)
K Senthilkumar, P Mathialagan and C Manivannan

abstract
Human-wildlife conflicts are a concern in Tamil Nadu. Various species were responsible for the human-wildlife conflict, which includes elephant, tiger, leopard, wild pig, monkey, Indian Gaur etc., Study objectives were to assess cost value of crop/livestock loss incurred by farmers as well as to identify drives of human-wildlife conflicts and explore mitigation measures on agro-based communities of Tamil Nadu. Data collection was done using interview schedule administered to randomly selected 240 human-wildlife conflict affected farmers from top four Human-wildlife conflict affected districts of Tamil Nadu viz., Erode (human-gaur conflict), Coimbatore (human-elephant conflict), Krishnagiri (human-wild pig conflict) and Kancheepuram (human-monkey conflict). Majority (48.3%) of the elephant conflict respondents experienced losses which was in the range of Rs.25,001 and Rs.50,000, followed by 45.0 per cent of them suffered losses above Rs.50,001during the period of two years of study. The major losses created by the elephants on the farmers were recorded in paddy field followed by ragi (finger millet) and coconut. Nearly one-third of the respondents reported loss to their properties. Among the respondents, only one-fourth of them confirmed that they had lost property worth below Rs.10,000. Majority of the losses (88.3%) to property is with human-monkey conflict among all the four conflicts. Monkeys were more likely to attack children than adults, and when adults were attacked, they frequently attacked women.