Shrinking wild spaces and the growing conflict between humans and animals

Like writer-journalist Jon Mooallem wrote in "Wild Ones", I too have been finding nature in the oddest of places. This, especially so during this long-drawn-out pandemic, while I remained mostly holed up in one of the most nature-unfriendly cities in the world (if I may say so). Bears have appeared on my pyjamas, which I have refused to get out of as the pandemic stretched on and on. Tigers are seen on the tip of my toothbrush. Elephants and sloths roam the wild in the animated movie I keep playing in a loop because it's comforting. In terms of actual wildlife, though, I have seen the occasional Lesser Golden-backed Woodpecker.

In the meantime, work has continued—mostly from home—and as a copy editor with a background in environmental science who receives stories from around the country, I could not help but note the sheer volume of human-animal conflict stories. I am beating myself up for not keeping an exact count, but a quick search on The Daily Star's website reveals that there are way too many stories of humans being trampled to death by elephants. Now, elephants in general are not human predators. They do not eat us for food and are considered gentle. But they can kill, when provoked, when we come in their way, when they are stressed, harassed or are looking for food and you happen to be in the way. In the hill districts, this seems to be happening way too often to be ignored. Which brings me to the issue of growing human-wildlife conflict.