Coexistence and the SDGs: an argument for a rights-based approach to human-wildlife conflict in India

ABSTRACT

While the international conservation discourse is making the case for reframing human-wildlife interactions from human-wildlife conflict (HWC) to coexistence, the latter remains an elusive goal for countries in the Global South grappling with escalated frequency and severity of HWC. Cohabitating in the same landscape as priority conservation species, it has been a fait accompli for poor and marginalized communities in India to bear the disproportionate burden of HWC with serious implications on their lives and well-being as well as for the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We make the case that while HWC has typically been framed as a conservation issue, it also merits equal attention as a serious sustainable development issue requiring an extension of the rights-based approach to its management. This is critical for achieving coexistence as well as in the interests of justice and the central promise to “leave no one behind” of the SDGs.

KEYWORDS:

• Coexistence
• compensation
• conservation
• human-wildlife conflict
• rights-based approach
• SDGs

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. In India, “Indigenous” people are referred to as “Tribal” or “Adivasi” with the Constitution of India having special provisions for what are termed as “Scheduled Tribes” (STs). Some of the criteria adopted by the government for specification of a community as a ST are indications of primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the community at large, and backwardness.