Enviro News Asia, Coimbatore – Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav inaugurated a Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Human-Wildlife Conflict at Coimbatore on Friday, accompanied by the launch of a National Human-Wildlife Conflict Portal, as India steps up its efforts to address one of the country’s foremost conservation and development challenges.
The inauguration was followed by a National Workshop on Human-Wildlife Conflict, bringing together senior policymakers, forest managers, scientists, researchers, technology experts, and conservation practitioners to deliberate on effective mitigation strategies. Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Kirti Vardhan Singh also attended.
Yadav said human-wildlife conflict has emerged as a critical challenge due to increasing interactions between people and wildlife resulting from habitat fragmentation, changing land-use patterns, and expanding human activities. He called for a solution-oriented approach utilizing modern technological advances, and stressed the need for species-specific and area-specific measures to address panic in communities.
“Coexistence and harmony, instead of conflict, should be the mantra of ecological sustainability,” Yadav said in his keynote address.
As announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 7th Meeting of the National Board for Wildlife, the CoE will serve as a national hub for research, innovation, policy support, capacity building, and the dissemination of best practices for science-based management of human-wildlife conflict. Yadav called on the centre to focus on managing conflicts involving tigers outside tiger reserves, leopards, and elephants, and urged forest departments across the country to take proactive preventive measures in coordination with local communities.
Minister of State Kirti Vardhan Singh noted that successful wildlife conservation has paradoxically increased human-wildlife interactions, creating a broader socio-economic challenge affecting livelihoods. He expressed hope that the CoE would play an important role in capacity building for officials and communities, while leveraging advanced technologies and preserving traditional knowledge.
The National Human-Wildlife Conflict Portal, also launched at the event, is a digital platform designed to facilitate data management, knowledge sharing, and decision support for conflict mitigation across the country. The first edition of a publication series titled “Current Status of Human-Wildlife Conflict in India: An Overview” was also released.
Technical sessions covered human-elephant conflict, human-big cat conflict, and technology and innovation for conflict mitigation, with a live demonstration of the portal also conducted. (*)
