1 year ago

From rhinos destroying crops in Nepal, to wolves and bears wandering through
langering livestock on ranches and alarming people in Europe and the
US, the conflict between humans and wildlife is a problem which continues to persist as home spaces for each overlap. Is there a way for people and wildlife to coexist more peacefully?

On today's PEACE TALKS RADIO episode, correspondent
Priyanka Shankar take us on a safari to India and to the US
exploring the main reasons behind human-wildlife conflicts
Focusing on how people can learn to coexist with animals, in
this episode we will first talk to Gerard Martin, a
conservationist based in South India. He focuses on trying to
educate people, especially young children, on how to coexist
with snakes. Death due to snake bites is a very big problem in
hich naturally reflects badly on the animal. But GerardMartin is trying to change that.

We will then travel back to the United States and visit the forests and valleys of the Sierra Nevada and talk to Petros Chrysafis. He has also established predator monitoring tools and non-lethal deterrent measures to ensure livestock and wildlife coexist safely.

Lastly, we will hear from Paula Pebsworth, a primatologist who has worked on mitigating
human-wildlife conflict between primates and humans in many parts of the world and is currently based in Texas. Paula's focus is to find solutions for humans and wild animals to coexist in harmony. She also addresses the more neutral language and narratives
policymakers, the media, researchers, conservationists, and others could be using to help educate people more accurately about human-wildlife conflict.

"For me, the end goal here isn't humans loving animals that they are in conflict with. I just want them to tolerate and understand the animals. Right? So you can, on your own
ree time, hate that animal as much as you want. But I want you to understand that, it
doesn't really do anything that it does in any sort of malevolent way. It just exists. And
its basic biological drives are to find food, to protect its young and to mate. Right. And
to exist as an animal. So tolerance is where I want to be."
~ Petros Chrysafis :, California Wildlife Conservationist

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