Centre of Excellence on Human–Wildlife Conflict (CoE-HWC)

Why in News?

The Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Human–Wildlife Conflict was inaugurated on 10 July 2026 at Coimbatore.

• Established by –Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON)
• Aim – To strengthen India's scientific and institutional capacity to address the growing challenge of human–wildlife conflict (HWC) .
• Role – The Centre of Excellence will function as the national nodal institution for research, innovation, policy formulation, capacity building, and dissemination of best practices related to HWC management.
• It seeks to promote science-based and evidence-driven decision-making by integrating ecological research, technological interventions, and community-based conservation strategies.
• Dedicated Portal – National Human–Wildlife Conflict Portal was launched as a centralized digital platform for data collection, analysis, knowledge sharing, and decision support.
• The portal is expected to facilitate real-time documentation of conflict incidents, improve coordination among forest departments, researchers, and local communities, and support informed policy interventions.
• The Centre will prioritize species-specific and region-specific conflict mitigation strategies, particularly for elephants, tigers, and leopards, including the management of tigers dispersing outside notified tiger reserves.
• It also emphasizes preventive measures, awareness generation, and stakeholder participation to reduce damage to crops, livestock, property, and human lives while ensuring wildlife conservation.
• 3 themes – The inaugural workshop highlighted three major themes:
  • Human–Elephant Conflict
  • Human–Big Cat Conflict
  • Technology and Innovation for Human–Wildlife Conflict Mitigation
• Technologies used – Artificial intelligence (AI), GIS, remote sensing, drones, camera traps, GPS telemetry, and digital databases.

Reference

PIB| (CoE-HWC)