Impact of Natural Habitat Change on Human Elephant Conflict A Case Study of Buxa Tiger Reserve BTR Alipurduar District

Abstract

Abstract newlineIntroduction newlineNatural landscape change in and adjoining protected areas is one of the major newlinedriving force behind the occurrence of Human elephant conflict worldwide. These changes on newlineland create hurdles for free movement of elephant through migration corridor since newlineintervention from the part of human activities deteriot the habitat quality; destroy the supplies newlinechain of food, water, and forage. As a result, both the species are competing for their basic newlineneeds and survival. The habitat lost for wildlife and loss of ecological niche compel them to newlinefrequently use to barge into the human occupied landscape. All these phenomena lead to both newlinethe species into close contact and conflict. Therefore, the main aims and objectives of the newlinepresent study are- (i) To study the geographical background of the area in and adjoining newlineregion of Buxa Tiger Reserve. (ii) To examine the spatio-temporal Land use Land cover newlinechange in and adjoining region of study area. (iii) To estimates the risk of Human-Elephant newlineconflict on changing habitat in and adjoining region of Buxa Tiger Reserve. (iv) To highlight newlinethe socio economic characteristics of inhabitants residing in and adjoining study area. (v) To newlineassess the resident s behavioural attitude towards Human-Elephant Conflict. (vi) To suggest newlinesome remedial measures to reduce the burning problems associated with Human-Elephant newlineConflict. newlineMethodology newlineThe field studies were conducted through the stratified systematic purposive random newlinesampling techniques. The Landsat satellite images of 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2019 were newlinecollected from USGS followed by radiometric and geometric correction, clipping and newlinesubsetting of study areas, supervised classification through maximum likelihood, accuracy newlineassessment through error matrix, land use land cover change analysis through image newlinedifferencing techniques, forest health study through NDVI, forest degradation and newlinefragmentation study, land use land cover change on elephant corridor and proximal to killer newlinerailway tract. The risk probabilities of human