Use of an Action‐Selection Framework for Human‐Carnivore Conflict in the Bangladesh Sundarbans

Abstract

Human-carnivore conflict is manifested in the death of humans, livestock, and carnivores. The resulting negative local attitudes and retribution killings imperil the future of many endangered carnivores. We tailored existing management tools to create a framework to facilitate the selection of actions to alleviate human-carnivore conflict and applied the framework to the human-tiger conflict in the Bangladesh Sundarbans. We identified potential actions that consider previous management efforts, local knowledge, cost-effectiveness, fieldwork experience of authors and project staff, previous research on tiger ecology by the authors, and recommendations from human-carnivore conflict studies in other countries. Our framework includes creation of a profile to improve understanding of the nature of the conflict and its underlying causality. Identified actions include deterrents, education, direct tiger management, and response teams. We ranked actions by their potential to reduce conflict and the monetary cost of their implementation. We ranked tiger-response teams and monitoring problem tigers as the two best actions because both had relatively high impact and cost-effectiveness. We believe this framework could be used under a wide range of human-wildlife conflict situations because it provides a structured approach to selection of mitigating actions.

Human–tiger conflict: A review and call for comprehensive plans

“…Historically (>50 years ago), human deaths were 1 to 2 orders of magnitude greater, with human deaths numbering in the hundreds annually in areas such as the Sundarbans, Singapore and Indonesia . More recently, loss of human life is greatest in South Asia, especially the Sundarbans in Bangladesh and India, where dozens of people are killed per year (McDougal 1987;Karanth & Gopal 2005;Gurung et al 2008;Barlow 2009). In Southeast Asia, loss of human life is highest in Sumatra, where between 5 and 10 people are killed per year (Nyhus & Tilson 2004;Nugraha & Sugardjito 2009); less than 1 person is killed per year in all other Southeast Asian countries (McDougal 1987;Kawaneshi et al 2010; and Russia (Miquelle et al 2005;.…”

“…A variety of other measures have been used, particularly in the Sundarbans in Bangladesh, to prevent or thwart attacks on humans (Barlow et al 2010). Masks worn on the back of the head and armored headgear have been used to discourage tiger attacks and electrified mannequins have been used to condition tigers against attacking humans (Sanyal 1987;Mukherjee 2003), but these methods have not been rigorously tested (Karanth & Gopal 2005;Barlow et al 2010). Dogs have been used to warn people of tiger presence (Khan 2009), but in Russia, several people have been attacked by tigers attempting to prey on dogs .…”

“…Measures used in HTC situations include attempting to frighten the tiger from the area (hereafter referred to as "hazing"), and capturing to fit the animal with a telemetry device and release it onsite or translocate it (Goodrich & Miquelle 2005a;Miquelle et al 2005;Barlow et al 2010). Telemetry allows managers to monitor the tiger, providing an early warning if the tiger attempts to approach humans or livestock and providing a means of measuring the success of interventions (e.g.…”

“…Usually, animals that require capture are those that cause repeated depredations, are clearly wounded or diseased, or orphaned cubs that are too young or too unfit to survive on their own. Following capture, a variety of actions have been employed, including releasing animals onsite and then attempting to haze them when it appears conflict is eminent, or monitoring them and keeping people and livestock from the vicinity of the tiger (Goodrich & Miquelle 2005b;Barlow et al 2010;Smith et al 2010). Data on hazing and translocation of tigers are anecdotal and little data have been published , so the efficacy of these techniques is unclear and likely site specific.…”

“…attempt to frighten the tiger away using signal flares) if the tiger returns; and (iv) capture the tiger and asses its condition if conflict continues or if there is evidence that the tiger is wounded or diseased. Similar teams have recently been employed in Bangladesh (Barlow et al 2010), but few other range states have well-defined protocols or trained personnel dedicated to dealing with HTC. Ideally, tiger response teams would include education, policy and law enforcement (e.g.…”