When Kriti Karanth walks into a forest village in the shadow of India's Bandipur National Park, she is often greeted by farmers with mobile phones in hand, ready to report a video of a late-night encounter with a herd of elephants or the fresh tracks of a leopard passing behind their houses.
These are messages from the front lines of some of the most intense interactions with wildlife in the world. In the rolling green hills of India's Western Ghats, survival depends on coexistence with high population densities of some of the most endangered species on the planet. This can be costly: herds of wild elephants can damage valuable banana plants, and tigers can turn up unexpectedly in sugarcane fields, threatening livestock and sometimes even lives.
For farmers like Shankarappa from the local village of Naganapura, such interactions often brought fear. His family's land is just over half a mile from Bandipur National Park, one of the last havens of Asian elephants. “They created a lot of problems,” he said.
While global biodiversity is rapidly declining, many communities living closest to nature are often left without solutions. In many rural areas of India, animal habitat is declining due to agricultural expansion and deforestation. This forced villagers to come into closer contact with wildlife, often with devastating results. Karanth says the way forward is to change farmers' attitudes towards wildlife and empower them to deal with animals moving through their fields.
General Director of the company Wildlife Research CenterA non-profit research organization based in India, Karanth grew up among the same forests where she now conducts research and implements conservation programs. Her father is wildlife ecologist Ullas Karanth, one of the world's leading tiger biologists. “I spent most of my childhood outdoors, watching wildlife and exploring the woods,” she recalls. This early connection with nature shaped her approach to conservation.
To help communities struggling with interactions with wildlife, Karanth launched a program in 2015 to make it easier to respond to wildlife encounters in real time. After a conflict occurs, farmers can call a toll-free number and leave a voice message with details of the incident. Within hours, a trained field assistant travels to the area to document evidence of losses and help the farmer apply for government compensation.
Most reported cases involve crop loss, property damage and livestock predation. But there are also isolated cases of injury or death. The Wild Seve program helps families get quick answers to help ensure their safety and food security.
Before Wild Seve, this was an expensive process that required time, travel, and endless forms. “It helps a lot in terms of time and money,” says Sankarappa, who has so far filed 59 claims and received nearly 96,000 rupees (about $1,082) in compensation.
To date, Wild Seve has provided assistance to more than 14,600 families in 3,495 communities. Each report adds to a growing database of incidents that researchers can use to study who suffers the most from wildlife and where conflicts are most likely to recur. Trained field staff can answer questions about both the meetings and the process, helping people build trust in the program and its specific decisions.
Paul Robbins, director of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, which has conducted extensive field research in India with the CWS, explained that by devolving the reporting process to communities, “you finally get a realistic assessment of what's going on, which is good for science and even better for trust.”
According to Karant, crop damage from wildlife can wipe out six months of a farm family's income. To ensure financial stability for farmers, she has taken an initiative among the farmers of Nagarahole and Bandipur National Parks. More than 10,000 people have signed up to plant and care for fruit, forestry and medicinal trees. Wild Carbon then uses drone technology to monitor the trees' growth and survival.
By eliminating vulnerable monocrops such as bananas, the program helps farmers create new sources of income while also building green corridors that reconnect fragmented wildlife habitats. An added benefit is that trees also sequester carbon, helping to adapt to climate change and restoring the landscape.
Robbins says the contributions of local communities are integral to Wild Carbon's success. The project reflects the input of residents, recognizing that people may value different trees depending on how they help support livelihoods or provide food. “It’s really important to give people as much choice as possible,” Robbins said.
Mohan, a farmer from Kalanahundi village on the southern edge of Bandipura National Park, has planted more than 300 saplings with support from Wild Carbon. He says these newly planted trees have improved the quality of the soil and are not eaten by wild pigs, which are often the leading cause of crop loss in his fields. “Trees will also help me build dealer,” a type of raised platform that allows him to guard crops from tigers, he added.
Both of these programs are locally staffed and have earned the trust of rural farmers. “They understand the culture and speak the language, and have a vested interest in the well-being of their neighbors and the wildlife around them,” Karanth added.
These innovative efforts earned Karant's team the prestigious John P. McNulty Award, which recognizes leaders for their courage and influence on critical global issues. It was the first wildlife organization among 60 recipients of the award. “This is an incredible honor for both myself and the Wildlife Research Center,” says Karanth. “To me, this award is recognition of the unique space we occupy that connects rigorous science with tangible impact on people and wildlife.”
While these approaches have already shown their value in India, Karanth believes they can be adapted and scaled up for other biodiversity regions. Whether it's elephants and lions in Africa or tigers and leopards in Asia, she says the goal is to “help communities prevent and recover from wildlife-related losses, rather than expect them to accept those losses.” In a country where 1.5 billion people compete with endangered species for land and resources, those who live closest to those animals will be a major part of the solution, she said.
Looking to the future, Karanth and her team hope to expand these solutions to address pressing challenges facing wildlife. She sees her work as a test case for the rest of the world: As climate change shrinks habitats and pushes wildlife into closer contact with people, India's response will have implications for conservation far beyond its borders.
Visit Wildlife Research Center website for news and ideas about innovative wildlife restoration efforts or to support their vital work.
The McNulty Foundation inspires, develops and challenges leaders to address the critical issues of our time. Established in 2008 by Anne Welsh McNulty in honor of her late husband, the John P. McNulty Award is given in partnership with the Aspen Institute and currently recognizes more than 60 visionary leaders for their courage and lasting impact. The McNulty Prize strategically invests at the critical juncture between proof of concept and global scale, where few other advocates operate, to position leaders and mid-tier businesses for greater impact.
