HEAL Initiates a Seed Goat Bank in Simni village, Jhalda-II block

06 December 2024

With support from WWF-India‘s Conservation Catalyst Program, HEAL has initiated a new project titled “Protecting Purulia’s Carnivores: Community-Driven Approaches for Cultivating Coexistence.”

Purulia, a semi-arid district on the Chotanagpur Plateau, in West Bengal supports diverse wildlife despite lacking designated protected areas. Its mix of agricultural fields, forest fragments, scrubland, and rocky outcrops provides habitat for carnivores like the grey wolf, striped hyena, golden jackal, Bengal fox, and leopard!

Vasudha Mishra, HEAL’s Communication and Outreach Officer, handing over a goat to a villager

In these shared spaces, human-carnivore conflicts inevitably arise from livestock predation and fear-driven retaliation. This project seeks to address these issues, fostering tolerance and building community support for carnivore conservation.

Suvrajyoti Chatterjee, HEAL’s Secretary, addressing the villagers during the program
The Goat Bank Management Committee

As a first step, we established a Seed Goat Bank in Simni village, Jhalda-II block. A village-level Goat Bank Management Committee has been created to oversee operations and compensation claims. The committee chose voluntary goat-keepers who were provided with 10 female goats to care for and breed, with the condition that a part of their litter will replace villagers’ livestock lost to carnivores, creating a sustainable compensation mechanism.

Team HEAL along with the Seed Goat Bank beneficiaries

It is hoped that swift compensation facilitated by this community managed Seed Goat Bank, will reduce intolerance for carnivores due to depredation events, sowing the seeds for human-carnivore coexistence in this landscape.

We sincerely thank WWF-India’s Conservation Catalyst Program for supporting this pilot human-carnivore coexistence model in Purulia.