India, Oct. 5 -- Elections in Haryana, Maharashtra, and Jammu and Kashmir have the media full of reports on the manoeuvring of various political actors as well as speculation and analysis on the electoral chances of the political parties in fray. As a conservationist, my thoughts often turn to what the various contenders for power have to say on the matter of wildlife and conservation. Issues related to wildlife conservation generally find little or no mention in most poll manifestos and campaigns, especially when it comes to Assembly elections. To their credit, both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress had included references to human-wildlife conflict (HWC) and the need to address the challenge in their manifestos for the parliamentary elections earlier this year....