An incentive-based mitigation strategy to encourage coexistence of large mammals and humans along the foothills of Indian Western Himalayas.

Escalation of human-wildlife conflict (HWC) is a barrier to the conservation of ecological corridors across the globe. The existing mechanisms to counter HWC are either economically and socially taxing, or ineffective for long-term management. We assessed HWC in the corridor linking the Rajaji and Corbett Tiger Reserves in Uttarakhand, India, and its drivers, along with the benefits derived by local communities from the forest. We designed an innovative incentive-based mitigation mechanism to encourage coexistence of people and wildlife around the corridor. Costs incurred due to conflict and benefits derived from the forest were assessed using semi-structured questionnaire-based personal interviews (n = 757) with representatives from forest dependent households (hh). Fuelwood (1678.7 ± 131 kg hh