Letter to the Editor Caught in the Crossfire: The Impact of Conflict on Animals in Kashmir

Abstract

The conflict in Kashmir, a disputed territory between India and Pakistan, has been ongoing for decades, with human casualties of war and violation of human rights well-documented (Ahanger 2019; Bhat 2019; Zia 2019; Pandya 2020; Dar and Deb 2020; Iqbal 2021; Walker and Curtis 2021); however, the impact of this conflict on animals in Kashmir has largely been overlooked. The existing scholarship on human-animal interactions in the disputed region has mostly been limited to human-wildlife conflict (Habib et al. 2015; Khan et al. 2022), such as human-carnivore conflicts (Agarwal and Mumtaz 2009; Dar et al. 2009; Aryal et al. 2014; Ahmad et al. 2016) and the resulting casualties within or without game reserves and conservation zones (Zahoor 2020; Tariq et al. 2022; Bombieri et al. 2023). Between 2006 and 2022, human fatalities and injuries caused by animal attacks (with usual perpetrators being the leopard and Himalayan black beer) have officially been estimated at 245 and 30,000 respectively; furthermore, predators have also been indulged in destroying crops and carrying away livestock and stray dogs (Naik and Hussain 2022). This disturbance in human-animal interaction has been attributed to factors ranging from rapid urbanization and transformation of forest landscape to the destruction of habitats and a shrinking space for animals in Kashmir. As your journal is dedicated to themes surrounding the Kashmir conflict, this short communication intends to draw academic attention to the effects of armed conflict on animals in Indian-annexed Kashmir.