LION HUMAN CONFLICT IN THE GIR FOREST, INDIA

Asiatic lions (Panthera leo persica) now occur in the wild only as a s mall population (about 250 animals) within a single reserve, the Gir f orest in Gujarat state in western India. Persistent attacks by lions o n humans binder support among local peoples for lion conservation We a nalyzed 193 attacks by lions on humans and conducted interviews with 7 3 villagers to identify the spatial, temporal, and social factors asso ciated with lion-human conflict in the region. An average of 14.8 atta cks by lions and 2.2 lion-caused deaths occurred annually between 1978 and 1991, and most attacks (82%) occurred on private lands outside th e forest reserve. A drought in 1987-1988 precipitated an increase in r ates of conflicts (from 7.3 to 40.0 attacks/year) and in the proportio n of attacks that occurred outside the reserve (from 75% to 87%). The spatial pattern of lion attacks could not be distinguished from random before the drought whereas attacks were clustered after the drought i n village subdistricts with a higher ratio of revenue land to forest e dge and those closer to sites where lions were formerly baited for tou rist shows. Subadult lions were involved in conflicts in disproportion to their relative abundance. A majority of villagers interviewed expr essed hostile attitudes toward lions owing to the threat of personal i njury and economic hardship (mainly livestock damage) posed by lions. The escalation in lion-human conflict following the drought probably r esulted from a combination of increased aggressiveness in lions and a tendency for villagers to bring their surviving livestock into their d wellings. Dissatisfaction with the government's compensation system fo r lion-depredated livestock was reported widely. The current strategy for coping with problem lions-that is, returning them to areas in the Gir forest already saturated with lions-is inadequate, as indicated by the sharp increase in lion-human conflict since 1988. Prohibiting lio n baiting for tourist shows, consolidation of reserve boundaries, and implementation of a more equitable and simpler system for compensating villagers for livestock destroyed by lions could provide short-term a lleviation of lion-human conflict in the region Long-term alleviation may entail reducing the lion population by relocating or culling lions .