Dear Abhinaya,

I'm not a direct specialist in this question but it is closely connected with conservation approaches to compensations in protected areas. To reply your question should know against what animal or plant you should protect the cattle or field, what season and against dusk or down animal. Important if you have swarm or alone organism, nomad or settled, actively vagant or hiding etc. generally, it depends on behaviour, area and a lot of other possible affluent reasons.

In some African countries electricity against elephants is using, smtms it is useful even against permanent invasion of mollusks in island conditions. But what to do in Gir NP in your's country, where are hundreds of lions ? Only removing of villages !!! Try to stop even domestic cat...

Best wishes,

Andrey

Are you able to provide me any documents related??? It will be great of you!!!

Dear Abhinaya,

Some facts are in my book "Conservation biology" 2002, but it is in Ukrainian (thinking about publication in English), so you cannot read. May be will translate for you some parts after finishing large collective monograph, where I'm resp. editor. Anyway the question you raised is of great interest and practical importance. Scientists are not  paying enough attention but sometimes even existance of NP depends on solution of protection. About 15 years ago NP Bialovezha with perfect europezn bisons failed in spreading of the territory due to attacks of  these animals and wild boars on their filds. in 90 th was even criminal affairs in the famous Yellowstone due to reintroducing of woolfs that immediately attacked farms...

SO, PROTECTION SHOULD BE FROM BOTH SIDES. ONLY THIS APPROACH LEADS TO CONSERVATION SUCCESS.

Andrey

Hi! I don't know if this can help, but in Chile (South America) we have an optional private insurance for cattle (it is also subsidized by the government for small farms), and includes attacks from other animals (dogs/ wild predators). You can find some information here (but it is in Spanish =/): http://www.agroseguros.gob.cl/ganado-bovino/

Best wishes,

Daniela

Yeah, I agree with Daniela that in some cases there is no other choice than direct guard near the field or cattle. I'm living in the National Park that is part of trilateral Biospheric Reserve “East Carpathians”. Now is over the season of potatoes gathering, and locals every night spent in the fields with dogs due to attacks of wild boars with swarms 10-15 or more. If no, during 1-2 hours will be end of field. To make fence is to expancive and not effective. This is NP, so cannot shot on them.

Boars do not afraid dogs, as some can achieve 2-3 hundred kg (record for Ukraine is about 425 (!). But if you have domesticated woolf !!!

If large farms like in Southern America it needs specialised firms of professionals.

The fact is that good experience in measures, I remind, can be in Australia. You know why.

Andrey

Like previous respondents have explained, such insurance/compensation schemes are common around the world, but the pertinent regulations are in the national language and difficult to access. Some examples: in Namibia wildlife/nature conservancies compensate for livestock kills by "their" predators. A google search may be successful and the story will in English. Similarly, Majella NP Italy compensates for livestock (sheep) kills by wolf. In both cases the effort to proof your case as livestock owner is high, potentially putative. In the Majella case, how can you distinguish a kill by wolf versus feral dog? A specialist job.

Washington State provides compensation to livestock operators in cases where wolves have been confirmed to be the cause of mortality and, where the operator signs a cooperative agreement with the state that outlines the types of measures (non-lethal to lethal) that will be employed by the livestock owner to prevent attacks.

Crops can be compensated for losses from ungulates in similar manner.  Crop owner must have attempted non-lethal measures as directed in a cooperative agreement.  They must also allow hunting on the property and, permit agency staff to access the property to prevent damage. 

Dollar amount of losses is determined by a third part assessor.  A statewide cap is set on the total amount that can be disbursed in a given year.

The US Federal Government has a multi-peril insurance program for crops that does not cover damage from wildlife but provides insurance for things like hailstorms, drought, etc.  Unlike the state of Washington, farmers have to pay into that Federal program to obtain coverage.  The formula for compensation is complicated but, also requires a certified crop adjustor to make the determination.

Dear Abhinaya,

in Germany there is a system of compensation money for damage in agriculture or cattle.

One example is the beaver (Castor fiber), which fells big trees and mines in streets, fields and dams. See here: 

http://www.lwf.bayern.de/mam/cms04/biodiversitaet/dateien/auszug_leitfaden_bibersch%C3%A4den.pdf

Similar this is handled for the Lynx (Lynx lynx), which hunts mostly deer, so the hunter receives money in case of damage. Because beaver and lynx are protected species, the government pays for the damage.

Contrary this is handled, when wild pigs (Sus scrofa) make a damage in agriculture. Because for wild pigs there is a shooting right, the hunters have to pay for damage. See here:

http://www.lwk-rlp.de/fileadmin/lwk/Landwirtschaft/Wildschaden/Klassifikation_Schwarzwildsch%C3%A4den.pdf

There are also organisations and specialized people, wo look for prevention of any damage caused by this animals and mediate conflicts between the partys. For example for the beaver:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibermanagement

I hope, I could help you, best wishes

Rudolf Ritt

Dear Abhinaya,

As others have already mentioned, there are many livestock insurance schemes in action around the world already. Please see these links to papers show-casing carnivore-related examples from the field. Some are conceptional, others evaluate experiences made.

http://www.bioone.org/doi/pdf/10.1659/0276-4741(2000)020%5B0226%3APTSLAE%5D2.0.CO%3B2 

http://www.livingwithlions.org/ScientificPapers/Evalution-of-compensation-scheme,Maclennan-et-al.pdf 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2003.00060.x/abstract 

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9985347&fileId=S003060531500068X 

Comprehensive reviews of the topic have been published by Philip Nyhus and Adrian Treves who have extensive experience with carnivore damage compensation schemes. For example, try access:

Nyhus, P.J., Fischer, H., Osofsky, S. and Madden, F. (2003) ‘Taking the bite out of wildlife damage: The challenges of wildlife compensation schemes.’ Conservation in Practice, 4(2) pp. 37-40.

Nyhus, P.J., Osofsky, S.A., Ferraro, P., Madden, F. and Fischer, H. (2005) ‘Bearing the costs of human-wildlife conflict: The challenges of compensation schemes.’ In Woodroffe, R., Thirgood, S. and Rabinowitz, A. (eds.) People and Wildlife: Conflict or Coexistence? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 107-121.

Treves, A., Jurewicz, R.L., Naughton-Treves, L. and Wilcove, D.S. (2009) ‘The price of tolerance: wolf damage payments after recovery.’ Biodiversity and Conservation, 18(14) pp. 4003-4021.

Regards,

Florian