As human-wildlife conflict incidents are rising in the district, the Pune Forest Division has reported at least 341 incidents of losses between April 2022 and March 2023. For this, the department has compensated ₹23.58 lakh to the victims, said a forest official. 

The data revealed that there was an event reported where a person was harmed in a wild animal assault between the study’s timeframe. Crop losses were reported in 70 cases, while domestic animal losses were documented in 270 incidents, including cows, buffalo, goats, sheep, dogs, and others. 

The data also revealed that the Daund forest range reported the highest incidents of domestic animal losses during the said periods. The overall animal loss incidents were 177, and the range also reported 2 incidents of crop losses and 1 incident of minor human injury in wild animal attacks.

The Indapur forest range has reported 32 occurrences of domestic animal losses, as well as 1 incident of crop damage caused by wild animals. 

Crop damage occurrences were more common in the Wadgaon forest range, with 32 incidences reported in the area 

The Pune Forest Division covers an area of 1264.04 square km of reserve forest. The area is divided into several forest ranges that include Pune, Bhamburda, Paud, Tamhini, Shirota, Wadgaon, Daund, Baramati and Indapur. 

Wild species such as the Chinkara or Indian gazelle, leopard, wolf, rabbit, Indian bison, wild boar, and hyenas live in these places. Some of these creatures have a natural habitat, while some have expanded their territory in these areas. 

Recently, the incidents of human and wild animal conflicts have increased in these areas on a significant level. As per the data, in 2020 there were 139 such incidents were reported this number has gone up to 341 between April 2022 and March 2023.

Ashutosh Shedage, assistant conservator of the forest, Pune Forest Division said, “The forest officials have observed that the wild animal’s existence has been increased around human habitat in the above-mentioned forest ranges. It is mainly in search of food, as they get easy access to domestic animals as well as crops. We have also observed that farmers or farm labourers get attacked by wild animals prominently. In case of such losses, the department conducts an investigation i.e. panchnama. After completing the process, compensation is given to the individual or the family that suffers from the wild animal attack.” 

Source - https://www.hindustantimes.com