Union Minister inaugurates Centre of Excellence on Human-Wildlife Conflict at WII-SACON, Coimbatore
Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav today inaugurated the Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Human–Wildlife Conflict at Coimbatore. The inauguration was followed by a National Workshop on Human–Wildlife Conflict, bringing together senior policymakers, forest managers, scientists, researchers, technology experts and conservation practitioners from across the country to deliberate on effective strategies for mitigating human–wildlife conflict. The ceremony was graced by the Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Kirti Vardhan Singh.
Delivering the keynote address on the occasion, Shri Yadav observed that human–wildlife conflict has emerged as one of India’s foremost conservation and development challenges due to increasing interactions between people and wildlife resulting from habitat fragmentation, changing land-use patterns and expanding human activities.
Addressing the gathering, Shri Kirti Vardhan Singh highlighted that the success of effective wildlife conservation has increasingly led to human-wildlife interaction. This has resulted in a much larger socio-economic issue, besides being a conservation issue, affecting livelihoods in the long term.
Dignitaries present on the occasion included Secretary, MoEFCC, Director General of Forests and Special Secretary, ADG (Wildlife), Director of the Wildlife Institute of India, senior officials of the Ministry, State Forest Departments, academic institutions and partner organisations.(UPDATED ON 10TH JULY 2026)
