MAN-ANIMAL CONFLICTS IN AND AROUND PROTECTED AREAS - A CASE STUDY ON GIR NATIONAL PARK/WILDLIFE SANCTUARY, JUNAGADH, GUJARAT, INDIA

摘要

In the last five decades, the exponential increase in the human and livestock population, and the resultant imbalance in the land:people ratio, besides changes in land use patterns, have placed a tremendous pressure on natural resources like the forests and the wildlife. In order to meet the increased demands of the human population, vast areas of forests, marginal lands, pastures and wastelands have been brought under cultivation, with the result that even the protected areas have become fragmented and disturbed by human activities, cattle grazing and exploitation of natural resources on a large. The process of encroachment on forestland is still continuing (The State of Forest Report, 1993). The situation in rural areas is very much characterized by irrational and unsustainable land use patterns. Added to these are industrialization and other developmental activities such as irrigation and hydro-electricity projects, mining and other developmental activities, which have had a drastic impact on protected areas.