PARK-PEOPLE CONFLICT IN BANGLADESH: A CASE STUDY FROM CHUNATI WILDLIFE SANCTUARY AND DUDHPUKURIA-DHOPACHORI WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

Conflict between people and wildlife is a foremost issue for conservation which is hard to solve when the wants of people collide in a straight line with the needs of endangered species like wild elephant. This study was carried out in the adjoining villages of two protected areas (PAs) of Chittagong region namely Dudupukuria-Dhopachori Wildlife Sanctuary (DDWS) and Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS) to identify the attitude of the villagers to the PAs by measuring different received benefits and faced problems from those reserves, the interaction between human and wild elephants and the opinions of the villagers to the effectiveness of community based wildlife management. The data were collected through a quantitative household survey which includes a series of close ended, fixed response and simple questions. Crop depredation was identified as a major problem to the villagers and they received small amount of benefits for the conservation program through protected area which create negative attitude among them to the PAs. Though most of the people were willing to participate in community based conservation program, they didnot think that such kind of approach is effective to protect biodiversity in the PAs. The present study makes the recommendation to build positive attitude to the PAs, to minimize the conflict, helps in future planning programs and further research of this field.