Key shortcomings in wildlife action plan

India unveiled the third National Wildlife Action Plan for 2017-2031 on 1st October, spelling out the future road map for wildlife conservation and emphasising on striking a balance between wildlife conservation and development alongside focusing on mitigating human-wildlife conflict, improving wildlife health and linking wildlife to climate change.

The current third action plan, after the first plan in 1983 and second from 2002 till 2016, calls for adopting a landscape approach for wildlife conservation, which is advancement over the previous protected area-centric approach. There has been a growing criticism that consecutive governments have focused on development and wildlife conservation has taken a back seat.

The third National Wildlife Action Plan is unique in nature as the plan outlines the strategies and actions to address the challenges arising out of climate change impact on wildlife and emphasises on integrating actions that need to be taken for its mitigation and adaptation into wildlife management planning processes.

However, the document appears to have good intentions. It provides detailed recommendations for protected areas. But the plan has certain shortcomings. Through the action plan claims to have a landscape approach for wildlife conservation, but wildlife living outside forest areas has been neglected.

Hyenas, wolves, great Indian bustards, leopards, and even tigers and elephants among others are known to live in outside of the forests. The plan is silent on how to manage these populations nor any mention of grasslands. For instance, the Karnataka Forest Department maintains three Elephant Task Force zones: a conservation zone, like forests, where elephants' needs are paramount; a human-priority zone where people's safety is of most concern; and a coexistence zone, where humans and elephants can coexist without any great hardship.

Neither the Wildlife Protection Act nor action plan deals with the range of situations where wildlife and people interact. This attitude becomes a problem when dealing with conflict situations.The plan also spells out addressing the rising human-animal conflict owing to shrinkage, fragmentation and deterioration of habits generating animosity against wild animals and protected areas. According to wildlife statistics, at least one person has died on average, every day due to attacks from tiger and elephants.

Underscoring the increasing need for people’s support for conservation of wildlife, the plan recommends eco-development, education, innovation, training, extension, and conservation awareness and outreach programs and use of cutting-edge-technology.

The forest department makes use of drones and camera traps to monitor the protected areas. But the third action plan has ignored the ethical and social consequences of the use of such technologies and has not come up with any framework for self-regulation regarding the usage of such technological instruments. The fact that the use of drones and camera traps may violate the privacy of the local people living in protected areas is completely ignored.

The third action plan acknowledges the damage caused by feral dogs and cats around wildlife habitats. It explicitly spells out that the issue must be managed. But it is silent on suggestive measures, which need to be taken to address the issue and moreover eliminating all dogs is neither possible nor desirable. However, the wildlife conservationists suggested taking some tough decisions immediately to reduce densities.

Through the sterilisation programms are costly, labour intensive, in later stages, it produces tangible results. Initially, the draft plan wants a national policy to check the invasion of exotic species by 2019. But the plan doesn't offer any actions to stop the invasion by species that don't belong here.

A study, ‘On-line trade of aesthetic exotic organisms: sword of Damocles,’ published in Current Science last year, paints a scary picture of foreign species available online in India. It is found 910 species of fish and 14 species of animals listed in online pet shops. So, the plan period (2017-2031) must be kept shorter to absorb contemporary realities and scientific advances. To be effective, it needs to be flexible enough to absorb scientific advances and learn from experiences.

By Gudipati Rajendera Kumar