As their natural habitat in the forests of Jammu and Kashmir is being destroyed while constructing roads and other projects, incidents of man-animal conflict have increased sharply claiming lives of 43 persons in the past few months.

The biotic interface of habitat of wild animals in the deep forests has been ripped while laying the road networks. The highways have also split the wildlife’s area of movement and the vehicular traffic has also driven the animals out of their habitat.

According to the data compiled by the forests department, a total number of 43 people lost their lives in attacks by wild animals and 544 were injured during the last year. The death toll of human beings was 26 and injuries to 300 persons a year prior to that and in 2014 the number of persons losing their lives in conflict with animals was 17 and injury to 244.

The man made conflict with wild animals is costing dearly to the public exchequer from which a sum of Rs.2.85 crore was paid as compensation by the state government for those injured and killed last year, while the total compensation was Rs.1.79 crore a year before and Rs.1.07 crore in 2014—15.

The worst affected are the wildlife sanctuaries and their habitat that was destroyed while constructing the Moghul Road that provides a direct road link between the Kashmir valley and the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch in the Jammu region.

The natural habitat of wild life was ripped apart while constructing the road that winds through rich forests. Several drinking water sources of the wild life were also destroyed in the process as the then governments attached political importance to building of the road instead of protection of wild life and the forest cover. This has resulted in sharp decrease of prey base that makes wild animals stray into populated areas in search of their diet.

Leopard and Bear attacks have increased in the human habitations in the area and women and children are the favourite target. The staff of the forest department was also facing attack by wild animals.

Increasing number of forest fires has also resulted in the wild life straying into the human habitations resulting in man—animal conflict. A forest area of 2557 hectares was damaged due to 781 incidents of fire in the forests of J&K during nine months in the later part of last year against 214 such incidents in 2015.

Human interference is also responsible for the conflict due to the increasing number of encroachment in the forest area. According to rough estimates by officials, more than 30,000 hectares of forests has been encroached by people as a result of which the area for wild life has squeezed. Rajouri, Poonch, Ramban and Anantnag districts top the list of forest encroachments.