Tirupati, February 04: Incidents of wild animals straying into human habitations are increasingly becoming a common phenomenon and the latest being a large herd of wild elephants going very near the Kuppam town.
Though human casualties due to animal incursions are not yet alarming, people living in such areas are a frightened lot. If policy-makers take any drastic step, it may not be in the interest of the wildlife.
What causes wild animals to stray into human habitations? Wildlife experts says the answer is obvious: imbalance between wildlife population and their habitats. The increasing gap between animals and the extent of their habitats is the vital factor behind increasing forays of wild animals into human habitations.
Increasing encroachment of forests in the name of development is effectively reducing the habitats of wild animals and causing loss ofecological balance.
However, there is no visible decrease in the number of wild animals and the efforts on part of the forest department are one of the reasons for it.
“Not only in Andhra Pradesh but in other parts of country as well there has been an increase in the wildlife population for the past few years. If the leopard is taken as an example, their numbers have gone up rather significantly,’’ chief conservator of forests (Tirupati Wild Life Management Circle) PV Chalapathi Rao said.
He said that restriction of human entry into the reserved forests, ban on use of wild animals in circus shows and restriction on rearing wild animals as pets have led to increase in the population of wild animals. But with no significant growth in their habitats on par with their growing numbers, they come out of forests in search of new habitats and, in the process, stray into human habitations.
On frequent sighting of leopards in the Tirumala ghat section, more so along the path of steps from Alipiri to Tirumala, Rao said that in the past the number of people trekking the hills was low and the sighting of wild animals was very rare.
“Today, the number of pilgrims trekking to Tirumala is rather high and the flow has become more or less continuous. With the vehicular traffic on the ghat road growing too, the chances of people coming across wild animals are increasing while crossing from one side of pedestrian path and ghat road to other’’ he said.
The loss of their habitats is forcing wild animals likes leopards, tuskers and bears to stray into human habitations in search of food, the forest official asserted.
–Agencies