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Assessing human-leopard conflict in the middle mountain of western Nepal
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  • Saroj Lamichhane,
  • Arjun Thapa,
  • Mahendra Thapa,
  • Saroj Panthi,
  • Anthony Giordano
Saroj Lamichhane
Institute of Forestry, Tribhuwan University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Arjun Thapa
Amrit Science College
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Mahendra Thapa
Office of Dean, Institute of Forestry, Tribhuwan University
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Saroj Panthi
Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment
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Anthony Giordano
SPECIES- The Society for the Preservation of Endangered Carnivores and their International Ecology Study
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Abstract

Livestock rearing and agriculture are the main sources of communities to sustain livelihood in the developing country like middle-mountain of the Nepal. Leopard is a top predator in habitat of mid-hill which is a major conflict wild animal. Forest degradation and declining wild prey population bring leopard to conflict. The spatial and temporal patterns of human-wildlife conflicts are poorly documented at provincial and national level that hinders in formulating effective conflict mitigation plan at real field. To assess pattern of human-leopard conflict (HLC) at spatial and temporal scale, primary data was collected through registered human wildlife conflict case collection which were triangulated through interview with victim(n=156) and we used maximum entropy along with relevant predictor variables to predict and map HLC risk area at provincial level. The cases of HLC are increasing trend last the five years. Annual average of 2.16 human death which shows increasing trend (p<0.05), 5.16 human injury which shows decreasing trend (p>0.05) and annual average of 159.6 livestock depredation which shows increasing trend (p<0.05) were recorded in last five years. Winter is a main season of depredation and goat was main depredated livestock. Out of total US$ 86892.25 ($17378.45/year) economic loss, 78.57% was paid as relief indicating implementation of government’s relief fund of human-wild conflict. Results revealed mid elevated southern facing areas are more prone to HLC with an ecological variable mean annual temperature as top predictor including livestock density and distance to road. Predator-proof livestock corrals, educating local communities about wildlife behavior and timely management of problem animals will contribute to reduce the conflict.