Identifying Key issues for Conservation of Sloth bear Detailed Final Report_0.pdf · Identifying Key issues for the Conservation of Sloth bear, 2015 Page| 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

I

Identifying Key issues for Conservation of Sloth bear

(Melursus ursinus) in Rajnilgiri, Odisha, Eastern India.

Submitted to

The Rufford Small Grants Foundation,

United Kingdom

Submitted by

Prakash Chandra Mardaraj IUCN/SSC- Bear Specialist Group

© The Rufford Foundation, 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical without the permission from the Rufford Foundation, 6th Floor, 248 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 7QZ Fax: +44 (0)20 7636 1428; [email protected] www.ruffordsmallgrants.org, except and strictly for teaching or training.

Photo credits: Prakash Mardaraj

Cover photo: Top: Swarnachuda Reserve forest, Middle: Sloth bear cub holding the thumb, Bottom: Stone mining adjoining the Mitrapur Reserve forest.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction Page 1

Study area & Objectives Page 4

Methodology Page 6

Result & Discussions Page 7

Local people's attitude Page 19

Conservation educational programmes Page 23

Mitigation Strategies Page 27

Conservation Recommendation Page 30

References Page 32

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

At the outset, we extend our a warm gratitude to The Rufford Small Grants Foundation, UK

for funding this research project. We are highly grateful to RSGF for funding the present study

and enhancing the conservation effort in this highly problematic region.

Several individuals have made this study successful and I would like to express my sincere

gratitude to everyone. First and foremost, I express my special word of thanks to the respected

Referees Dr. John J. Beecham, Dr. N. P. S. Chauhan, Dr. Justus Joshua and Prof. Sushil

Kumar Dutta for their constant guidance, advice, suggestions and for having confidence on

me.

Heartfelt gratitude also goes out to Shri Harsha Bradhan Udgata, Divisional Forest

Officer, Balasore Wildlife Division for his consent to undertake this project. I also thank for

all the cooperation rendered by the Nilgiri Range officer and their respective staffs without

whom this project wouldn’t have been possible.

II truly and deeply wish to thank my friends Dr Himani Kala and Angeera Sen for their

support and help throughout the whole project work. We are grateful to Susanta, Gayadhara

and Surendra the field assistants for their kind co-operation and support during the project

work. I hereby personally thank Nilakhanta the driver for all his service during the field visits.

I would like to express my heartiest sincere thanks to Bubu for the encouragement and

moral support during the project work.

Last but not least I am pleased towards the cooperation and concern of the local native

for providing information on Sloth bear conflicts in their areas.

Identifying Key issues for the Conservation of Sloth bear, 2015

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

In India, sloth bears are distributed from the southern tip of the Western Ghats

mountains to the foothills of the Himalayas. Habitat degradation due to increased

human population (Cowan 1972, Schoen 1990), diminished food resources (Murthy and

Sankar 1995, Rajpurohit and Chauhan 1996), and increased poaching for its gall

bladder (Laurie and Seidensticker 1977, Servheen 1990, Garshelis et al. 1999) have led

to declines in sloth bear populations. As because the forest areas outside the parks and

reserves have decreased, remaining populations of sloth bear are becoming

increasingly fragmented (Garshelis et al. 1999). The sloth bear is included in Schedule I

of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 (amended 2002) and in Appendix I of CITES.

Sloth bears are found widely in lowland forests of the Indian subcontinent. The bears

live in a variety of habitat such as Teak forest and Sal forest, lowland evergreen forest

and the hill country up to elevation of 1700 m. Sloth bears are also found in riparian

forests and tall grass areas on the floodplains of Nepal (Joshi 1996) and in the

Bhrahmaputra valley of Assam (Cowan 1972, Krishnan 1972, Brander 1982). Presently

sloth bears are commonly distributed widely across the tropical forest of the Indian sub

continent (Yoganand, et al. 2006). They were reported to be abundant during the mid

1800s, but declined severely between the late 1800’s and mid 1950s due to habitat loss

and hunting (Prater 1948, Krishnan 1972). As a result of continued habitat destruction

and degradation, sloth bears have been extirpated in some areas in India. (Krishnan

1972, Garshelis et al. 1999, Singh 2001). Sloth bears are locally considered to be one

of the most dangerous wild animals. Sloth bears reportedly can attack without apparent

provocation and may encounter humans when they raid croplands or when people enter

forests to collect non-timber forest products (NTFP; Garshelis et al. 1999). Sloth bears

raid a variety of crops and occasionally scavenge on cattle carcasses (Laurie and

Seidensticker 1977, Rajpurohit and Chauhan 1996, Rajpurohit and Krausman 2000).

Most of the attacks were recorded in managed forests outside protected areas

(Rajpurohit and Chauhan 1996). Interactions between Sloth bears (Melursus ursinus)


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and humans span a diverse array of geographic and human demographic

contexts.Bears typically compete directly with humans for space, food, security, and

cover. Anthropogenic food has been documented as the major attractant of bears

leading to bear–human interactions throughout their range. Besides, three detailed

studies have been conducted on sloth bears in Central India; one study was done within

protected area, Panna NP (Yoganand et al., 2005), the other was done outside

protected area in North Bilaspur forest division (Chauhan et al., 2004; Akhtar, 2004 and

Bargali, 2004) and the third one was conducted in Mount Abu and Jessore wildlife

sanctuaries in western India (Mardaraj et al 2008).

Map 1: Sloth bear Distribution in India and Odisha


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The state of Odisha has a costal line of about 480 kms. The state extends over

an area of 155,707 sq. kms. This accounts about 4.87% of total area of India. The

recorded forest is 5.8 million Ha which is 37% of the total land area. Of which 47% is the

reserve forest. According to 2001 census, the state has total population of 36,706,920.

The total forest in the state in 1981 was 59,963sq.km constituting about 38% of the total

geographical area. In 1989, it stood at about 30%; but according to 2001 census, the

coverage of forest area is 37% of the total land area. Odisha have 2 national parks, 1

Biosphere reserve and 19 wildlife sanctuaries.

Previously, the distribution of sloth bear covered almost the entire state except

the coastline, but in last two decades, its distributional range has decreased to half due

to massive habitat destruction by mining and deforestation. The distribution of sloth bear

are recorded in 12 districts out of 30 districts, in the state of Odisha, Out of 50 forest

divisions in the state, bear presence has been recorded in 44 forest division (including

wildlife and territorial divisions). Bear exists in 14 areas out of 19 protected areas of the

state. Out of the 500 plus human attack cases in last five years reported in Odisha, sloth

bears were killed in five instances. Villagers living at the fringe of forest were vulnerable

to bear conflict. In North Odisha, human-sloth bear conflict has been a serious problem.

At the outskirts of the Wildlife ranges, bears are causing a lot of nuisances. Incidences

of human mauling and killing are frequent. During monsoon season, bear raid crops,

and invade human habitation and crop fields in search of food items (Murthy and

Sankar, 1995; Rajpurohit and Chauhan, 1996, and Rajpurohit and Krausman, 2000).

Occurrence of bear inside the villages and villagers in the patchy and degraded forests,

bear habitats have resulted in serious problem of human-bear conflicts, human mauling

and killing and crop depredation by bear are on the rise, which in turn are posing threats

to the survival of sloth bears.

In this report, we have documented about the gravity of the problem, problematic areas

and human casualties with circumstances of attacks. It would help mitigating the sloth

bear problems by planning accordingly and also would help in conservation and future

scientific management of the species.


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CHAPTER 2: STUDY AREA & OBJECTIVES

2.1: STUDY AREA

The proposed study was conducted in the Nilgiri wildlife range, under Balasore wildlife

Division, Odisha with primly focusing on Swarnachuda Reserve forest. It lies within 21o

25’ to 21o 40’North latitude & 86o 35’ to 86o 55’East longitude. Biogeographically the

area is coming under Chotanagpur plateau. The forest types of these areas are mixed

deciduous forest which is good habitat for sloth bear. The range area covers 444.50 sq

km. The Nilgiri wildlife Range mostly falls in the Nilgiri sub-division. The total subdivision

area is 818.17 sq km. Cultivation land in Nilgiri is 73,474 acres, Irrigation area of Nilgiri

Sub-Division is 7,407.02 acres. According to the 2001 census hand book the total

population is 1, 80,027 (st-62,739; sc-21,334; general-95,954.) There are 331 number

of revenue villages in the sub division, around 14 Irrigation projects are there in and

around Nilgiri wildlife Range. The main occupation of the local people is farming. Nilgiri

wildlife Range has five reserve forests, namely, Swarnachuda, Mitrapur, Ajodhya,

Tinkosia and Arabandh Reserve Forest. The Range harbours the river Budhabalanga

through its tributary Sono, flowing in the West- Northern portion of the Range area. The

maximum Sloth bear population of the Nilgiri wildlife Range exist in the Swarnachuda

and Mitrapur Reserve Forest, so mostly the people living around the Swarnachuda

Reserve forest faces serious problems due to human Sloth bear conflicts. Among the

existing reserved forests in Nilgiri wildlife Range Swarnachuda Reserve forest has the

highest number of Human Sloth bear conflicts (Mardaraj and Dutta, 2011).

2.2: OBJECTIVES

1. To identify key issues for human-sloth bear conflict in the proposed study area

2. To quantify the nature and intensity of conflict between human and sloth bear

3. To study the local people's attitude towards the Sloth bear conservation

4. To organise conflict awareness and conservation educational programmes

5. To develop strategies and a conflict conservation plan for minimizing the conflict


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Map 2: Balasore Division map showing intensive study area


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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

1. Detail survey of the study area and interacting with local peoples. Ground

verification and documentation of the raised problems and circumstances for the

conflicts.

2. To study the nature and intensity of human-sloth bear conflicts, information on

nature and extent of the problems: human mauling or killing, spatial and temporal

occurrence of human casualties, if any, is being collected in specially designed

formats by interviewing the local people and verifying the cases, collecting

information from the forest department. Information on the number of mauled and

killed people, time of incidence, number of bear attacks, group size of attacking

bears, age of the mauled person, place where the incidence took place and

activity of the victims etc will be collected. Circumstantial evidences, whether

people use the forest areas for non-timber forest produce collection, grazing cattle

or work in crop fields or vicinity of villages when bear activity is maximum etc, is

also being recorded. Verification of the payment of compensation for human

casualties is being done. During the study period, the victims or his or her

relatives are being interviewed directly.

3. To study the people perceptions and conflict tolerance level of the local was done

by a survey of the study area, and interaction with the local villagers to record

their attitude and views towards the conservation of sloth bear and habitat.

4. The training & awareness campaigns were organised for educating the people

about the do’s and don’ts in the bear affected areas and also to teach them to

identify bear presence by direct/indirect evidences, while they move during dusk

and dawn in the bear habitat or along the forest roads. Group meetings were

arranged with involving all stakeholders.


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CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1: IDENTIFY KEY ISSUES FOR HUMAN-SLOTH BEAR CONFLICT

The degradation and loss of forests, especially outside protected areas, poses a major

threat to sloth bear populations. Fragmentation of forests may lead to isolated, non-

viable bear populations (Garshelis et al. 1999). Degradation, in the form of overgrazing,

tree-felling, fire, conversion and reclamation for other uses, and over-extraction of forest

resources that are essential for sloth bear survival appear to be occurring throughout

the sloth bear range, Particularly in the dry forests (Yoganand 1998).

To know the gravity of the problem and its past history, We have inspected the entire

Nilgiri Range of Balasore wildlife Division, from the preliminary data we found that the

maximum human Sloth bear conflict was affected the Swarnachuda reserve forest and

its surrounding villages. So we focused on the Swarnachuda reserve forest for the

study. We survey (40 km) along the fringe villages in the study area. The head man or

the representative of the villages were interviewed and few more villagers were also

questioned to record information about the occurrence of past and present status of

human casualties, cropping patterns of their locality, agricultural crop damage, NTFP

collection and sloth bear related problems. We covered 18 villages in 5 Grampanchayat

and Nilgiri NAC.

A. Stone quarrying and stone crushing is a global phenomenon, and has been the

cause of concern everywhere in the world, including the advanced countries.

Quarrying activity is a necessity that provides much of the materials used in

traditional hard flooring, such as granite, limestone, marble, sandstone, slate and

even just clay to make ceramic tiles. However, like many other man-made

activities (anthropogenic factors), quarrying activities cause significant impact on

the environment (Okafor, 2006). In particular, it is often necessary to blast rocks

with explosives in order to extract material for processing but this method of

extraction gives rise to noise pollution, air pollution, damage to biodiversity and


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habitat destruction. Dust can also have physical effects on the surrounding bear

habitat, such as blocking and damaging plants internal structures and abrasion of

leaves and cuticles, as well as chemical effects which may affect long-term

survival (Guach, 2001). Quarrying carries the potential of destroying the delicate

sloth bear habitats and the species they support. Even if the habitats are not

directly removed by excavation, they can be indirectly affected and damaged by

environmental impacts – such as changes to ground water or surface water that

causes some habitats to dry out or others to become flooded. Even noise

pollution may have a significant impact on the bear species and affect their

successful reproduction. Due to mushrooming of stone quarries around the

Swarnachuda reserve forests a high concern conflict situation has been created.

Presently there are 22 stone quarries are running legally and illegally. Red soil

quarries are also playing a vital role in destroying the sloth bear habitat.

Photo 1:Stone and Red soil (Laterite) mining adjoining the Sloth bear habitat


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B. In India, forests and people are inextricably linked since millions of people live

adjacent to or within protected areas and harvest forest products (Kothari et al.,

1989). However, often the human pressure on forests is not sustainable and can

cause forest loss and degradation. Fuel–wood is a major source of energy for

rural households in India and other developing countries (Cecelski et al., 1979;

Heltbert et al., 2000). Wood harvesting is widespread because wood is abundant,

inexpensive and easily available in protected forests. As compared to other

sources of energy such as electricity or LPG, its abundance makes it a reliable

source of energy. Alternatives to fuel–wood are difficult to put into practice.

Complicated renewable energy devices are not easily accepted in the rural areas

Photo 2: Villagers depending on Sloth bear habitat for fuel wood


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(Arjunan et al., 2006). Villagers residing around the Swarnachuda reserve forest

are totally depends on the forest for firewood as their principal source of energy,

particularly in rural areas and among the below poverty level groups of people in

the villages. Even if cooking gas is affordable by the people but they depends on

forest as it is free of cost, firewood is collected mostly by unregulated commons

and, as a consequence it is very sensitive to overexploitation as the population

increases. Illegal felling of tree, cutting of bushes for the fuel wood for the nearby

villagers play a main role in habitat loss.

C. Forest also provide economic to the locals by plucking of seasonal fruits from the

forest and selling it in the local markets. Human interference in the reserve

forests for collecting seasonal fruits, edible tubers and honey which are the main

source of food for the bear in the

area create a shortage of availability

of bear interest food materials from

the bear habitat. Collection of NTFP

(non timber forest products) from

the forest is an another point toward

the destruction of bear habitat. The

forest has been the chief source of

minor forest produce that provides

subsistence for the forest dwellers

residing around the forest areas.

Besides timber and bamboo, non-

timber forest products also play a

major role in the day-to-day life of

the villagers. Important items

amongst them are mahua seeds,

kusum seeds, honey, resin,

seasonal fruits, etc. The percentage of income from this source increases with

the poverty of a household (Patnaik, 1997). The tribe in and around the

Photo 3: Mahua flower collection by locals


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protected area, subsist on the collection of non-timber forest products. and of sal

seeds also cause disturbances in the area. Forests are deliberately burnt to clear

the floor for collection of the seeds and flowers of Mahua. Although sloth bears

have large and widely distributed food resources, availability of food items is low

(Rajpurohi and Chauhan 1996). This was mainly because many important food

items such as jamun (Syzygium cuminii), ber (Ziziphus numularis), tendu

(Diospyros melanoxylon), bel (Aegle marmelos), mango (Mangifera indica);

mahua (Madhuca indica) flowers, shoots of bamboo, tubers and root and honey

from the rock bee (Apis dorsata) and smaller forest bee (Apis indica) were also

collected by the villagers as NTFP. The local people collecting most of the above

food items and thus develop intense competition with the bears for resource

sharing.

D. Local people keep cattle for both commercial and self use. The domestic cattle

were hardly stall feed, villagers primarily depends on the forest for the fodder.

The aggressively grazing of the domestic cattle from the nearby villages reduces

the quality and the quantity of both food and covers, thus influence the rate of

conflicts and also spreads contagious diseases among domesticated animals to

the wild animals. As the food availability for bears in the reserve forests decline

Photo 4: Ants are sold at local markets Photo 5: Selling of Tendu by villagers


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by the profusely cattle grazing and thus forcing the bears to intrude into the

human habitat in search of food. This leads to rise in human bear conflicts.

E. Lack of awareness among the villagers as they are not sentient of bear activities.

People went early in the morning into the forest to collect NTFP as this is the

time when sloth bears are active in

foraging. In the forest fringe villages

there is unavailability of toilets and

water source so villagers early morning

go for their sanitary activities near the

pond and water sources at the fringe of

reserve forest, Sloth bears are active

during the dusk and dawn and thus they

comes in direct encounter with human

beings and results in conflict cases.

Photo 6: Cattle grazing inside the reserve forest

Photo 7: Sloth bear in the village


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4.2: THE NATURE AND INTENSITY OF CONFLICT

Field surveys were conducted and the data collected were analysed to prepare final

findings which is discussed further in this chapter. Whole Nilgiri Range areas of

protected and non protected forests in the Balasore wildlife division were surveyed to

know the gravity of human sloth bear conflict. Further almost all the forest areas and

affected villages within that area were surveyed and native of village were interviewed

to know their perception towards the past and present conflict status of bear in their

area. We conducted casual interviews with the villagers within the study area to inquire

about sloth bear occurrence.

Human mauling cases were mainly reported from Swarnachuda and Mitrapur reserve

forests out of total Eight reserve forests in the Range. Interviewers reported that sloth

bears were found in forest patches close to their village and many respondent had

regular sightings of sloth bears on their farm lands and nearby water sources during the

dusk and dawn time. We couldn’t got any useful information on Sloth bear attacked

cases on Sloth bear mauling incidence from the rest of the reserve forests of Nilgiri

Range. Interviewees from the villages around Ajodhya, Tinkosia, Tenda, Devgiri,

Kuldiha and Arabandh reserve forest reported that there were sloth bears in their vicinity

and very few respondents were uncertain about the presence or absence of bears in the

adjoining forest of their village.

Sloth bears are patchily distributed in the protected and unprotected forests in

the study area. The majority of sites where human‐sloth bear conflicts occurred were

around the villages adjoining the reserve forest.

We collected the information of all such records through village survey, secondary data

and other sources to evaluate human‐bear conflicts. Bear strays out of the protected

areas, it increases the scope of bear confrontation with human residing in vicinity. Bears

are reported to be visiting the villages, farms and other human dominated areas which

increase the chances of bear attack on humans and some time human attacks on

bears.


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Photo 8: Victims of Sloth bear attack in Nilgiri Range


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0

5

10

15

20

25

30

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

% o

f Att

acks

Sloth Bear Attacksn = 184

4.2.1: Yearly variation of sloth bear attacks

A total of 184 number of attacks cases has been reported from Swarnachuda and

Mitrapur reserve forest during the time period from June 2002 to June 2015. All the

victims were interviewed with a pre- designed survey format. Apart from those formal

discussions, informal discussions were also made with affected villagers and with the

witness of the dead cases to gather information about different aspects of human sloth

bear conflict of the area.

Compiling the information we conclude that out of total number of cases the maximum

percentage of attacks happened during 2005 to 2009 (64%) (figure: 2) this was the

period when maximum number of stone quarries were actively running in that areas.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

No.

of A

ttac

ks

Sloth Bear Attacks n = 184

Figure 2: Year wise percentage of Sloth bear attacks

Figure 1: Year wise Number of Sloth bear attacks


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Figure 4: Seasonal variation in attacks

4.2.2: Gender-Wise Attack Ratio Male were more venerable to attacks (n=151, 82%) than the females (n=33,

18%) as the men were mostly found to be engaged in different activities like defecation

near the forest areas, collection of

NTFP, farming, cattle grazing and

moving in vicinity of houses during

the night time when the sloth bears

were outside the protected areas for

foraging. In crop fields, incidences

occurred mainly when the victims

were involved in farming activities.

Figure 3: Gender-wise Percentage of Sloth bear mauling incidences

4.2.3: Seasonal variation in human casualties

Balasore district enjoys 3 distinct seasons. From the collected information we

scrutinized the mauling cases according to different months and then sorted down

according to different seasons i.e.

summer season (March–June),

monsoon season (July-Oct) and winter

season (November-February) as per the

environmental condition of Odisha. In

Nilgiri Range human casualties shows a

increasing tendency during the monsoon

seasons, it shows little increase during

the Monsoon season (54%) then in

summer (32%) followed by winter

seasons (14%).

Summer28%

Monsoon

40%

Winter32%

Seasonal Attacks

Male82%

Female18%

Genderwise Attack Ratio


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Figure 5: Monthly variation in attacks. Representatives in X axis, 1 January, 2 February, 3 March, 4 April, 5 May, 6 June, 7 July, 8 August, 9 September, 10 October, 11 November, 12 December

4.2.4: Monthly variation of attacks

The human casualties were almost throughout the months, After data analysis we found

that highest number of interactions reported in the months of S e p t e m b e r (n=26,

14%) and October (n=24, 13%) which is 27% of the total attacks and during the month

of June (n=20) which is 11% followed by January 10% (n=19).

4.2.5: Time of Attacks Diurnal pattern of occurrence of human casualties showed variations. As from the

gathered information the bear attacked primarily when the encounters were sudden and

the attacks were probably a defensive response. The frequency of attacks on humans

engaged in various activities was related to their intensity of usage of different habitats.

It was also found in the present study that human and bear activity overlapped in the

early in the morning 80% were occurred (n=43) from 4:00 am to 8:00 am and then

followed by the night time (8:00pm - 4:00am) 28% of the total casualties. 24% of the

total casualties reported to took place in the evening and least encounters took place

during the day time (n=8, 4%) i.e. from 8:00 am till 4:00 pm. Due to high human

interference and activities of the villagers in and around the reserve forest bears restrict

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

No.

of M

aulin

g

Months


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Figure 6: Occurrence of Attacks at different time frame

their activities to the evening and night time so percentage occurrences of sloth bear

attacks were less during day time.

4.2.6: Age and Sex ratio of the victims We interviewed the victims and also the family members of dead persons and

found 84 number (46%) of persons were at tacks from the age group between

21-40 years, followed by age group of 41-60 years with 74 numbers (40%) and

the young (upto 30 years) and Old (above 60 years) age group were least to attacks

below 8% from the total number of incidence. Male were more prone to attacks than

females. Out of the all victims males were regular victims of attack.

0102030405060708090

0801‐1600 1601‐2000 2001‐0400 0401‐0800

Day Evening Night Morning

No.

of A

ttac

ks

8

58

59

14

4

26

15

0

0 20 40 60 80 100

Young‐20

21‐40

41‐60

61‐Above

Number of Victims

Age

Gro

ups

MaleFemale

Figure 7: Age and Sex variations among the Victims


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CHAPTER 5: LOCAL PEOPLE'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE SLOTH BEAR CONSERVATION PAs have brought consumptive and non-consumptive benefits (Harada, 2003), and it

is estimated that 90% of the world’s poor depend on forests for at least a portion of

their income (World Bank, 2000; Scherl et al., 2004; USAID, 2006). Community

participation is seen to be the building block for the efficiency of the Reducing

Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) project. In order for

local residents to cooperate with a reduction of deforestation and forest degradation,

they must have a positive perception toward the forest conservation system and

positive attitude toward the forest conservation project. The perception and attitude

of the local people were studied in two dimensions: the perception toward the

conservation of Swarnachuda forest, the awareness of the forest and forest

resources. This study attempted to examine the attitudes of the local people involved

in the forest conservation where carbon credits are targeted to be sequestered.

To know the Local people attitude of people living in and around the Swarnachuda

RF we survey all the villages in the study area. After the preliminary survey data

were obtained from a random sample of 242 households living within the vicinity of

the protected forest. The selection were made on the basis of the villages which are

Photo 9: Interviewing the local people in the affected village


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suffered most from bear conflict. The representative of the villages and few more

villagers were interviewed to record information about the livelihood condition like,

occupation, the dependency on the forest, basic needs like drinking water and

sanitary facilities. We have also tried to find out the local people perceptions towards

the sloth bear conservation and the sloth bear distribution in their area. All the

villages were categorized as affected and non-affected on the basis of occurrence of

human sloth bear conflict cases. In total 242 detailed interviews of the villagers in 12

most affected villages about sloth bear conflict in the area.

Villagers have pre-empted a large part of the forest for their use. Regardless of the

socioeconomic characteristics or the village where the residents lived, firewood was

the main source of energy in the study areas. In addition, the material for housing

came from the forest, such as thatch for roofing material and timber for the house

and furniture. Most the households were depended on fuel wood for cooking from

the respondent survey we found 78% of household depends on forest for firewood

followed by the other source of energy like LPG 9%, Kerosene stove 5%, electricity

4% and 2% of the total respondent use gobar (cowdung) gas as their prime source

of cooking. Villagers also collect wood as a livelihood option to selling in the locals as

fuel-wood. the high dependency on the forest directly affect the conservation effort

and so do plays a vital role in damaging the sloth bear habitat. As the need

completely depends on the forest resources the dependent attitude towards the

conservation is very challenging

Due to unavailability of household toilets 85% of the household people go outside in

morning to the nearby forest areas for sanitary activities. Only 15% of houses have

toilet facility, during morning and evening the bears are mostly active and this human

interference in the fringe forest areas are influencing the human sloth bear conflict in

the areas.

In total, 38% (n = 91) of the interviewed people strongly agreed that the sloth bear

presence represent a healthy forest, followed by 33% agreed to it. But 26% of the

respondent disagree to it, they focused that sloth bear always intrude into human

habitation and only depends on village areas for their food so forest can't be

categorized to healthy or poor by hte presence of Sloth bears.


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Of the interviewed local residents, 79% (n = 192)strongly perceived the forest as an

important source of supplemental local need and livelihood , and of these, followed

by the (18%) were agree to it, villagers who depended entirely on forest resources

for their need were concur the forest is important for human beings . Only Two

percent of the respondents (n = 4) claimed that the forest did not have any

importance to them.

Importantly, 50 percentage of people agree and 26% strongly agree that the sloth

bear habitat is worth protecting. The respondents who perceived the protective use

of the forest were mainly older. The old respondents and the more educated people

were generally more aware about the ecosystem function of the forest and were

concerned about the consequences of completely clearing the forest.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

A B C D E

% o

f Res

pond

ent

Agree Strongly

Agree

Disagree

Disagree Strongly

No Idea

A. Sloth bear sign healthy environment B. Protect Sloth bear habitatC. Willing to support park's rules D. The forest is beneficial to peopleE. Good if allow hunting or remove all bears (n=242)

Figure 8: Graph showing the villagers perception on questioner


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We posed several general questions related to the forest’s rules and regulations.

While nearly 73 percent of persons interviewed indicated their willingness to abide by

the regulations, 23% felt that the forest was actually benefiting the local populace.

Nevertheless, they appeared to be quite pragmatic, with less than 2% of

respondents have no idea to the question and also 2% of respondent disagree in

abiding rules and regulations of the forest.

Moreover, people (23%) were willing to entertain the idea of removing or allowing

killing of sloth bears in the forest. Surprisingly nearly same number of people were

disagreed (21%) with the statement that, “Allowing us to hunt or remove the sloth

bears would be a good thing.” To what extent these respondents really supported

this position statement could of course to be debated.


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CHAPTER 6: CONFLICT AWARENESS AND CONSERVATION EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES

Conflicts between bears and people include any negative interaction between a

person and bear that is aggressive, defensive, or nuisance in nature. Such conflicts

can have ecological, economic, behavioral, safety, psychological, and social impacts

such as crop or livestock damage, destruction of property, and perceived and real

threats to personal safety, including, rarely, human injury or death. In India Sloth

bears are the most common species of bear involved in conflicts, which are primarily

non-life threatening events. Other bears species in India interact with people with

less frequency and at different magnitudes of conflict. In the latter instances, public

education often is used as an attempt to change human behaviour and hence to

reduce bear–human conflict.

Conservation education is totally lacking in this region and there was a need

for carrying out intensive awareness programmes. Local villagers residing around

the bear habitats are the primary target group of the awareness programmes to

address this specific issue. The educational programmes was focus on (1) Reducing

human-sloth bear conflicts (2) Changing attitudes of people towards Sloth bears (3)

Increasing public understanding of the value of wildlife and its habitats (4)

Developing a successful and replicable wildlife education model.

Conflicts between Sloth bear and humans, if left unchecked, are likely to

increase and threaten the remaining populations of Bear species unless measures to

enhance public support for conservation efforts are undertaken. Education plays an

important role in reducing the conflicts if proper communication strategies along with

management interventions are adopted. The places where the conflicts are likely to

occur such as villages and towns around protected areas need attention. We

concentrated in 12 villages around the most sloth bear affected villages in the study

area.


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There were few programmes that have been implemented in the Sloth bear affected

villages. We conducted school level painting competitions among the selected 31

students from 12 schools participated in the competition. The affected village schools

around the Swarnachuda and Mitrapur reserve forests were invited to the

competition. The theme for the competition was " SAVE THE SLOTH BEAR AND ITS

HABITAT". With announced prizes 8 participant in Senior and 8 in Junior groups

were awarded, the winners were awarded with some token money and a certificate

of apperceptions, apart from winners all the contestant were gifted drawing books

and pencils. The goal of initiating conservation ethics among the children and aware

them about the sloth bear and its habitat was achieved. The painting were really

attractive as the young and less experienced kids had painted so well revealing the

theme of the painting .

Photo 11 : Best painting awarded in the painting competition

Photo 10: Participant drawing in the Painting competition


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Two trainings programmes for forest field staffs in Swarnachuda and Mitrapur RF

were performed, the front level field staff were trained to resolved the conflict

situation. The programme was to experienced the staff with the direct and indirect

evidences of presence of sloth bear in their areas. They were trained to identify the

route and areas of bear foraging in the fringe areas and also around the human

habitations. The sloth bear behaviour i.e, movement pattern, aggressive behaviour,

feeding habit were also explained during the meetings. This training was very useful

to locate the bears near the villages and regular monitoring will aware the local

people regarding the bear presence or absence in their locality.

With the successful implementation of the training two sloth bear rescue operations

were conducted jointly with the villagers and the forest staff. With the awareness and

education programmes in the conflict villages the local people helped the staff in

saving the bear instead of retaliation killing.

With the village meetings for increasing awareness and conservation prospects, we

were also especially interested in exploring how they perceived the imposition of the

forest’s rules and regulations that affected their options for dealing with wild animals,

crop damage and other sources of people-wildlife conflict. Clearly, these villagers

had a good understanding of which mammal species inhabited the area. Almost all

of the persons we interviewed correctly marked species from the list provided. No-

one reported the presence of tigers, common leopards or wolf, all of which are

Photo 12: Forest staff & locals training and awareness meeting Photo 13: Sloth bear digging


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absent from this study area. A surprisingly high percentage of respondents reported

that they or another member of their household had seen sloth bears.

the local people were informed regarding the activity and detail ecology like

reproduction seasons, foraging areas, active time frame. As the villagers are poor

and uneducated and they mostly were daily labourers so we arranged meetings

during evening time and in their locality. so group meetings with 5 to 10 households.

Photo 14: Forest staff and locals jointly rescued Sloth Bear from affected village

Photo 15: locals saved sloth bear from retaliation killing after motivation

Photo 16: Rescued bear cub from Poacher


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CHAPTER 7: CONFLICT CONSERVATION PLAN & CONFLICT MITIGATION STRATEGIES

Conflicts are also found to be more acute with the degree of use of the same

habitats by human. The present study has been carried out at Balasore district of

Odisha where sloth bear exists. Hence it is not possible to make specific suggestions

and recommendations with the limited information collected. However on the basis of

the present study, finding and analysis we are suggesting some important strategies

to reduce the human-bear conflicts and conservation of bear population of the area.

This recommendation may serve as a primary steps towards long term conflict

resolution and conservation management plan for sloth bear population in the region.

It is found that dense forest habitat, particularly forests along escarpments is

more used by sloth bears in the study area and thus it is more crucial for bear; on the

other hand the same habitat is used by humans for various purposes like MFP

collection, cattle herding, fuel wood, etc. This situation has been the major cause of

bear‐human conflict in the study area. It is hereby suggested that such habitats and

forest patches should be identified and protected from humans use. Further various

human use of this habitat, e.g. for grazing livestock, collecting fodder and other

minor forest products, should be limited up to some specific season and time of the

day to reduce the bear‐human confrontation.

The bear conflict distribution study shows that a considerable number of

human sloth bears conflict is occurring in this protected areas, i.e. Swarnachuda and

Mitrapur reserve forests, the same area is also identified as a conflict zone in the

present study. Establishment of strict protection in these reserve forests for

regulating human infiltration and maintaining habitat may be a better step for the

future of sloth bears. Unlike Sri Lanka, the cases of bear hunting and poaching are

very less in Odisha but similarly a large population of tribal people and local villagers

are depending on the collection of forest produces which can be regulated and

managed.

It is also found that majority of bear attack were surprise attack, in which bear

and/or human is not aware about the presence of each other. Such circumstances

can be reduced by restricting human use and entries in escarpments and hillocks


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where bears are littering and resting. The interviews and meetings with the local

villagers and bear attack respondents have revealed that the people in the area are

less aware, less interactive and more ignorant about the compensation policies,

conservation and other issues related to conflicts. It is therefore felt that, education

and awareness programmes related to conservation, bear ecology and behaviour,

causal factors for menacing behaviour by bears, and possible mitigation strategies

need to be conducted more for the villagers in the affected areas. Such education

and awareness programmes can also inculcates the conservation ethics among the

locals.

People in the area are not reporting bear attack to the forest department for

claiming the compensation due to their illiteracy and very unaware of the application

procedure. We have aware the village head for taking action as per needed. The

members of bear club wear also instructed to help the affected people and

smoothing the process for compensation. It is thus suggested that some prescribed

compensation claiming application form can be made available to the people, so that

they can easily fill the form and claim for compensation.

The bears are recorded moving on the fringes of the villages and forest during

early morning and dusks, this is the general time when bears come out from their

den for foraging purpose or returning to the den after feeding during night. Entry of

local villagers, cattle graziers can be restricted during this time. If the local transport

road is passing through such areas, the system can be developed through which, all

people at a time can pass this areas to avoid sudden confrontation of bear. Their

presence in the vicinity of bears will adversely impact bear activity and behaviour

and may result in bear attacks on them.

For wildlife conservation involvement of local people and their support is

necessary. Through education and awareness programmes, conservation ethics can

be included among these local people. So the education and awareness programs

about ecosystem, conservation, natural history of slot bear, bear habits, feeding

habits, behaviour, activity pattern, human-sloth bear interaction and safety measures

are important for the local community. Constitution of village committees would help

in confidence building and creation of awareness among the people of the affected

areas through more outreach programmes. This will greatly help conservation of


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sloth bears in the Nilgiri Range. Villagers should be motivated more to grow trees of

economics importance in their crop field to reduce their dependency on the forest,

and to keep a few high yielding cattle, and dispense with large number of local

breeds.

Photo 17: The bear attacks are frequently seen in the local news papers


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CHAPTER: CONSERVATION RECOMMENDATION

• We need to verify and updates the information on the distribution across their

range and develop a database on bears existing bear habited areas need to be

identified and mapped. Intensive surveys should be carried out to assess the status

and distribution of bear in the protected areas for bear density and abundances. A

realistic sloth bear distribution range map to be developed.

• Slot bear habitat need to be quantified and mapped on broad scale land use

maps so that necessary steps could be taken to protect and restore such habitats.

• Factor leading to degradation and fragmentation of sloth bear habitats should

be identified area-wise and strategies should be developed to remove these threats.

Cattle grazing, illicit cutting, and lopping should be completely banned in the Sloth

bear areas.

• Local people ventures into the forest anytime of the day to collect non-timber

forest products, which may be of bear interest i.e. food plants. So there should be

restriction on collection of these forest products on the bear areas. Villagers should

be discouraged from collecting the bear food items from the forest. • To reduce crop damage by sloth bears, vulnerable stages of crops, especially

at the maturation time, should be protected by using crackers, fires and other scary

sounds to keep away bears from the fields. Change in the crop pattern may be

useful. To avoid casualties, people should move in groups, especially at morning and

evening time.

Human activities not only disturbed bear population but also have caused

further degradation of the habitats. Some time high anthropogenic pressure and

human activity may cause forest fire in the areas. It is suggested that the entry of

such nomadic graziers into the forests should be restricted, checked and forest

areas should be frequently monitored during this season to reduce the situations of

forest fire.

Mining is one of the major threat not only to bear population but also to the

overall ecosystem leading to habitat loss and human infiltration in the bear habitat.

Mining activities in the vicinity of boulders hillocks, with potential densities of bears,

hyenas and other wild animals should be immediately banned. Villagers collect and

bring Madhuca indica (Mahua) flowers into their homes to prepare traditional liquor.


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The strong scent of Mahua residue may attract bears towards the villages. Likewise,

bear may also be attracted to Ziziphus mauritiana (Ber) fruits stored in the house. To

avoid this, some common disposal point of Mahua residue should be decided

outside the village or disposed off far away from villages and preferred food items of

bear such as Ziziphus fruits needs to be properly stored or concealed.

Bear attacks recorded and studied during the last 13 years and in the study period

respectively suggests that they are not seasonal like black bears and Grizzly bears.

Water sources in the localities of day‐resting sites should be protected or if lacking,

could be provided. Restoration measures could include reducing the causes of

degradation, facilitating regeneration of plants, and planting trees species including

key food plants to augment cover and food for bears in those habitats.

The study depicts that the sloth bears in the study area depend on two

main food groups, fruits and insects – both are relatively abundant and easily

accessible. The problem of habitat degradation directly affects both fruit and

insect abundance and therefore sloth bear survival and reproduction.


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