Mitigating human-wildlife conflict and retaliatory poisonings in India to preserve biodiversity and maintain sustainable livelihoods - Carbofuran and Wildlife Poisoning: Global Perspectives and Forensic Approaches - page 126

'rotten egg solution' (prepared by mixing two rotten eggs in ten litres of water) over crops (as per
Report 2009d) can also be used.
Predation of livestock by wild carnivores can be prevented by making natural prey more abundant/
easier to fi nd than the livestock. By maintaining forest habitats suitable for herbivores, a good prey
base is sustained. The Nilgiri Hills in the Western Ghats were once a shola-grassland ecosystem, a
unique type of forest containing a high biodiversity of fl ora and fauna and having high water reten-
tion properties. Now, the region has lost most of its grassland to eucalyptus, pine and tea plantations.
This has resulted in a reduction in the wild herbivore food base, forcing carnivores to look for
alternative prey such as livestock. Similarly, the replacement of grass in the undergrowth of tropical
forests with weeds like Lantana americana has resulted in a fodder shortage for herbivores. This
is compounded by the presence of numerous head of unproductive low-milk producing cattle on
the forest fringe. These then compete with the wild herbivores for the already declining fodder (see
Figure 4.7). Replacing such cattle with fewer/ higher yielding animals is another option.
Finally, the concept of 'conditioned taste aversion' (CTA), where carcasses are laced with chemi-
cals which stimulate a sense of aversion after consumption to dissuade predators (Given 2007),
could be popularised among farmers. Similarly, by incorporating repellents in carbofuran formula-
tions, predators could be discouraged from consuming pesticide-laced baits (Martinez-Haro 2008).
Repellents could enable wild animals to sense the presence of carbofuran in a bait and thus dissuade
them from consuming it. The use of chemical repellents to minimise seed consumption by and mor-
tality of wildlife in agricultural areas is the subject of Chapter 7.
Figure 4.7 Low-milk producing cattle kept on the forest fringes compete with wild herbivores for
food resources