Human wildlife conflict in India: Do we need to debunk popular “ecological” theories implicit in conservation management?

2026 · doi:10.32942/x2ps95
preprint OA: closed
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Abstract

Conservation management in India appears to be based on a set of implicit oversimplified ecological beliefs. Using a thought experiment, I demonstrate here how management based on these beliefs is bound to lead to escalating human wildlife conflict (HWC). Mitigation measures such as capture-relocation are largely being used in spite of their demonstrated ineffectiveness or even counterproductive outcomes. It is time for ecologists to actively debunk the simplistic assumptions driving conservation management practices so that more realistic, scientific and data-based management can take the place of sentiment and ideology driven management.
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This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 1 of this Preprint. You must log in to post a comment. There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article. This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 1 of this Preprint. Add a Comment You must log in to post a comment. Comments There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article. Conservation management in India appears to be based on a set of implicit oversimplified ecological beliefs. Using a thought experiment, I demonstrate here how management based on these beliefs is bound to lead to escalating human wildlife conflict (HWC). Mitigation measures such as capture-relocation are largely being used in spite of their demonstrated ineffectiveness or even counterproductive outcomes. It is time for ecologists to actively debunk the simplistic assumptions driving conservation management practices so that more realistic, scientific and data-based management can take the place of sentiment and ideology driven management. https://doi.org/10.32942/X2PS95 Life Sciences conservation biology, wildlife management, human wildlife conflict mitigation, ecological balance Published: 2026-01-05 08:07 Last Updated: 2026-01-05 08:07 CC BY Attribution 4.0 International Conflict of interest statement: The author has no conflict of interest Data and Code Availability Statement: not applicable Language: English

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