Study of human wildlife conflict in kashmir valley with special reference to leopard and asiatic black bear

Abstract

newline Abstract newlineTHE GLOCAL UNIVERSITY PhD THESIS newlinexv newlineAbstract newlineThis study of Human-Wildlife conflict was a questionnairebased newlinesurvey carried out in all the ten districts of the Kashmir newlinevalley. Since by far a survey based on the questionnaire was the newlinebest thing to do this type of study and about one thousand (1000) newlinepeople belonging to the age group 18 to 76 years were questioned, newlinewith hundred (100) participants from each district by randomly newlineselecting 5 villages from the conflict areas of each district. It was newlinemade sure that these sampling villages of the districts cover all the newlinefive (5) wildlife divisions of Kashmir valley. newlineQuestionnaire based surveys have mostly been used in newlinewildlife science and have always proven beneficial. In this study, newlineto assess the nature of the conflict and the conservation attitudes newlineof people, interviews were done with the participants based on newlinestructured and open-ended questionnaires. People were newlinequestioned individually to make the results unbiased in order to newlinecollect information about the human wildlife conflict in their areas newlinerelated to the general opinion about wild animals, their population newlinetrend, Human casualties, crop raiding, predation behavior and newlineconflict mitigating techniques. newlineApart from it all the cases concerned with wild-animals, newlineeither their killings or their kill was recorded from 1st April 2016 to newline31st March 2018. Information was gathered from concerned newlineforest/wildlife officials, print and mass media sources and local newlinepeople. newlineFirst of all, a reconnaissance survey was done on whole newlinestudy area and then every sampling village was visited for the newlinepurpose of collection of data. Observational/ocular methods were newlineused for this study. Field data were collected from April 2016 to newlineAbstract newlineTHE GLOCAL UNIVERSITY PhD THESIS newlinexvi newlineMarch 2018. During the study tenure 17 human deaths were newlinereported, of which 6 were due to leopards and 11 were due to newlineBlack Bear. 243 cases of human injuries were reported, of which newline36 were due to leopards and 207 were due to Black Bear. During newlinethe study