Assessing the costs of human-wildlife conflict in the Khata wildlife corridor, Nepal

A consistent concern of conservation efforts is that relatively poor local communities often bear a high cost for the conservation of wildlife and biodiversity with high ecological significance. In this study, we quantify the cost to local farmers from tigers, leopards, and elephants in the Khata wildlife corridor, which connects two protected areas adjoining Nepal and India. We collected 12 years of data from the records of a local natural resource management committee and obtained information on local market prices through key informant interviews. The losses came from livestock depredation by tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) and its sympatric felid, common leopard (Panthera pardus), as well as loss of rice paddy by elephant (Elephas maximus). In the Khata wildlife corridor, the annual livestock loss was estimated to be USD 399 for tiger and USD 3,053 for common leopard, and the annual crop loss was USD 2,047 for elephant. Although these sums are relatively small given the ecological value of these species, they pose a heavy burden for the people living in the corridor. National and international efforts should help compensate local people affected by the human-wildlife conflict, both to get their cooperation with local conservation and for reasons of equity in the distribution of benefits.