Addressing human-wildlife conflict

July 8, 2011

In a written answer to the questions submitted by the deputy chairman of National Council, MP Sonam Kinga (PhD), as to what the government has done to resolve the issue of human-wildlife conflict in the country, the agriculture minister, Lyonpo Pema Gyamtsho, said the initiative taken by the government has been a success.

In the second session of the National Council held in the winter of 2008, MP Sonam Kinga moved the motion to discuss the issue of human-wildlife conflict. Other NC members supported the motion recognizing it as one of the pertinent issues that needed to be resolved urgently to address the nightmare of the farmers.

After an extensive deliberation that followed, the NC passed a resolution calling the attention of the  government to address the issue of human-wildlife conflict. Two months later, in February 2009, the NC submitted a set of recommendations on how human-wildlife conflict could be addressed.

“Our recommendations were not binding upon the government, but government could choose some of the recommendations submitted by the NC because human-wildlife conflict is one of the most persistent problems in the villages,” said MP Sonam Kinga.

In the fifth session of the NC, MP Sonam Kinga raised the same issue with Lyonpo Pema Gyamtsho. He asked what the government had done to address the human-wildlife conflict in relation to the resolution passed by the NC in its second session, and whether the recommendations submitted by the NC had been useful and taken up by the government.

The agriculture minister answered that some recommendations and strategies passed by the NC were taken on board and that the government was working on many of the strategies on a pilot basis.

In the seventh NC session, as a follow-up, MP Sonam Kinga submitted a written question to the minister asking whether the pilot projects initiated by the ministry were successful and whether they could be replicated in other parts of the country.

Lyonpo Pema Gyamtsho said that Wildlife Conservation Division (WCD) has come up with the concept of forming Gewog Conservation Committee (GCC) in all gewogs through the devolution of compensation schemes in the form of livestock or crop insurance. He said that GCC in future would eventually lead to active participation by the community members in conservation activities, mainly human-wildlife conflict.

In 2009, WCD with the project support of UNDP initiated pilot community-based livestock insurance with formation of Dagachu GCC for compensating livestock killed by predators with Nu 0.3 million seed money.  The seed money, he said, was deposited in the bank and compensation paid from the interest generated from the seed money. In 2010, two more GCCs were started on a pilot basis in Nubi Gewog in Trongsa and Bjena Gewog in Wangdue.

Lyonpo Pema Gyamtsho said that, alongside GCC livestock insurance scheme, compensation is also made through centrally run compensation scheme of NCD, the budget of which is annually met from the government budget outlay.

Lyonpo Pema Jamtsho reported that crop damage has not been compensated in cash as yet. Crop damage, mainly in the south, is being caused by elephants and other smaller ungulates raiding crop fields. He also said that various mitigation measures were taken to reduce crop damage.

With the support from NCD, first pilot crop insurance scheme has been initiated in Lhamoizingkha with Nu 117, 000 as seed money from WWF Bhutan. Similar pilot projects were initiated in Taraythang and Norbugang gewogs in Sarpang with Nu 0.1 million seed money each.

A 4.5 km solar electric fencing (SEF) was constructed with a budget of Nu 3.5 million in Singhe Gewog in Sarpang financed by WWF and UNDP. The NCD in collaboration with the Samtse Division had also constructed 6.3 km SEF in Sibsoo with a budget of Nu 2.6 million.

Lyonpo Pema Gyamtsho reported that in 2009, the agriculture ministry installed 100 sets of alarm fencing throughout the country to prevent human-wildlife conflict. The monthly reports of the fencing have shown that this year the frequency of visitation of crop by wild animals has drastically reduced.

In addition to these fences, elephant habitat management is also carried out by the Gedu Territorial Division and Samdrupjongkhar Division. This is intended to keep the animals in their natural habitat by providing them enough palatable fodder and also artificially supplementing natural salt slicks with artificial mineral salt.

To mitigate elephant menace on crops in Lhamoizingkha, several measures have been implemented like construction of SEF, construction of watch towers, alarm fences, and search lights.

In 2010, for proper maintenance of updated records of crop damages and livestock kills, the ministry designed a web-based database. The database, Lyonpo Pema Gyamtsho said, will enable field staff to upload crop damage and livestock kill data directly from the field and enable the ministry to prioritize the mitigation efforts as per the damage intensity.

For effective implementation of human-wildlife conflict strategies, NCD has translated the national strategy into Dzongkha which will enable local communities to come up with effective project proposals for mitigation and prevention of crop damage and livestock kills.

Recognizing the importance of involving the local communities in the mitigation of human-wildlife conflict, Lyonpo Pema Gyamtsho said the ministry has sent a group of community leaders to Thailand for exposure visit to study the various mitigation techniques practised in Thailand.

The ministry has initiated an endowment fund for the formation of GCC in all 205 gewogs. The fund raising campaign was launched on April 8 and has already raised Nu 1 million which has been invested with Bhutan Trust Fund. The returns from this investment will be used as seed money for the formation of GCCs.

By Jigme Wangchuk