Wildlife Conflict- A Conflict in Itself

Bhutan still being the agrarian society in the region, agriculture is still considered the backbone of the nation where government has been investing a lot since the beginning of the plan period in early 60s. People in the villages solely depend on agriculture productions for their livelihood. The survival depends on the efficiency of the collection of harvest for the year.

The farmers are always been challenged by wildlife. Sometimes the effect is devastating that they are left nothing to depend on for the entire year. In the early years, some people have been hunting down those animals which threaten their crop yields. The other challenge for some is that they are not able to hurt animals since they feel that it is a great sin to hurt others. For them the only way to get along is by guarding their fields and shooing the animals either by shouting or threatening them. People spent sleepless nights throughout from the time of cultivation till the harvest. In early years, besides worrying about their survival for the year people were also worried by the heavy taxes being levied on them by the petty leaders. This burden however has been removed from people as benevolent leaders came to the throne.

The more challenging came when government realized the importance of preserving the bio-diversity and the effect of having disturbed the natural food chain. People in the villages were informed about the illegality of hunting down animals. There were no other alternatives then. Many lost their crops to the wild animals and helpless were those poor farmers. Wild cats hunting down cattle, wild boars and others bringing down crop productions and in lower regions of country, both crops and people were threatened by wild elephants. Government has been putting every measure sine then to curb the effect. Government started compensating the loss of crops to wild life and other calamities but the compensation was not able to meet the year’s expenses. It was very difficult to choose upon the two very important issues; the issues of crops being destroyed by the wild animals and the issues of deteriorating the number of wild life as a result of hunt down. Both are very important and have to be promoted. On one hand, government has a mandate of promoting agricultural products to gear towards self-sufficiency and on other hand it is also internationally given importance on the preservation of natural bio-diversity and also considered illegal to hunt down animals.

If both are to be promoted, the wild life conflict would just grow and the dream of gearing towards self-sufficiency would be in air. Both are equally important and even the farmers have now understood the effect of hunting down the animals not only from religious point of view but also from the biology point of view. Our farmers have been very co-operative with the government and government on other hand has been very supportive in maximizing the yield and also various measures were undertaken to minimize the wild life conflict. The government had issued metallic fencing, introduced fire balls to shoo away animals especially the elephants. Recently government has also taken an initiative in providing all farmers an electric fencing which frightens away the animals but are harmless. The electric fencing was well received by the villagers and now government has a plan to introduce same method throughout the country.   

This wildlife conflict has been a conflict for long and still a problem for many in some parts of the region. It is a conflict in itself, a conflict between the two important issues, the issue of maximizing the crop productions and the issue of saving bio-diversity. Hope there will be a peaceful co-existence of all soon.