We are pleased to share with you an exciting new international scientific publication authored by Dr. McKenzie F. Johnson from Duke University (USA), Dr. Krithi K. Karanth from Centre for Wildlife Studies (India), and Dr. Erika Weinthal from Duke University (USA).
The paper titled “Compensation as a Policy for Mitigating Human-wildlife Conflict Around Four Protected Areas in Rajasthan, India” was published in the international journal Conservation and Society (Volume 16, Pg No. 305-319). The paper can be accessed at: 10.4103/cs.cs_17_1
The study looked at the effectiveness of compensation as a mitigation policy around four wildlife reserves in Rajasthan. It found that present policies, with their focus on charismatic animals like tigers and elephants, fail to acknowledge the impact of non-priority animals like antelope.
As a result, real losses incurred by villagers go unrecovered and this is detrimental to the cause of reconciling wildlife conservation and development. The authors also determined that the compensation process is controlled by bureaucracy restricting the flexibility for environmental governance at local levels.
