PIB TrackerA new Centre of Excellence on Human-Wildlife Conflict opens as conflict becomes a top conservation challenge
Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav inaugurated a Centre of Excellence on Human-Wildlife Conflict at Coimbatore — announced at the 7th National Board for Wildlife meeting — to serve as a national hub for research, policy and capacity building on managing conflict with tigers, leopards and elephants outside protected areas.
What happened
- Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav inaugurated a Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Human-Wildlife Conflict at Coimbatore, with a National Workshop.
- Announced by PM Modi at the 7th National Board for Wildlife meeting, it will be a national hub for research, policy support, innovation and capacity building.
- Yadav called human-wildlife conflict one of India's foremost conservation and development challenges, driven by habitat fragmentation and changing land use.
- The CoE is to develop policy for conflict with tigers outside reserves, and leopards and elephants, with area- and species-specific measures.
- He urged mission-mode awareness and proactive prevention: 'coexistence and harmony, instead of conflict, should be the mantra of ecological sustainability.'
For Prelims
- Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC): Negative interactions between people and wild animals (crop/property damage, injury, retaliatory killing) — rising as populations of both grow and habitats shrink.
- National Board for Wildlife (NBWL): The apex advisory body for wildlife, chaired by the Prime Minister, constituted under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
- Drivers: Habitat fragmentation, land-use change and shrinking corridors push animals into human areas — elephants and leopards are frequent conflict species.
- Conservation success paradox: Rising wildlife numbers (a conservation win) increase interactions and conflict — the challenge the CoE addresses.
- Compensation & coexistence: States pay ex-gratia compensation for HWC losses; 'coexistence' models stress prevention, early warning and community involvement.
- Don't confuse: The NBWL (PM-chaired, all wildlife) differs from the NTCA (tiger-specific).
For UPSC: Anchor this in the human-wildlife conflict challenge — the paradox that conservation success raises conflict, its drivers (habitat fragmentation, land-use change) and the shift to science-based, coexistence-focused, technology-enabled management. Link the NBWL, compensation frameworks, elephant/leopard corridors, and the conservation-versus-livelihoods balance.
What it is NOT: This is the launch of a research/capacity-building institution and a policy direction, not a new law, compensation scheme or conflict-resolution measure on the ground. The CoE supports evidence-based policy; actual mitigation is implemented by state forest departments.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS3.14 · Linkage L2
Anchor
Managing the paradox of conservation success — science-based, coexistence-focused management of rising human-wildlife conflict.
Substantiation (data)
CoE on Human-Wildlife Conflict inaugurated at Coimbatore (announced at the 7th NBWL): a national hub for research, policy and capacity building on tigers outside reserves, leopards and elephants.
Exemplification
Area- and species-specific measures, mission-mode awareness and technology-based early warning as the coexistence toolkit; NBWL as the apex policy body.
Problematisation
Habitat fragmentation, corridor loss, crop/livelihood damage, retaliatory killing and compensation delays make conflict a socio-economic as well as ecological problem.
Way-forward
Protect corridors, deploy early-warning tech, streamline compensation, and build community-based, species-specific coexistence strategies via the CoE.
Position
Government stance: 'coexistence and harmony' through evidence-based, technology-enabled, community-engaged conflict management.
Deploys into: Conservation, biodiversity and environmental impact (GS3.14 — human-wildlife conflict) · the National Board for Wildlife and the Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972 · habitat fragmentation, corridors, compensation and coexistence-based management.
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change · 2026-07-10 · PRID 2283188 · PIB source ↗