New Delhi, Oct. 16 -- The vagaries of monsoon rains and volatility of market prices are not the only factors that eat into farmer incomes. Raids on crops by wild herbivores, a less visible but growing crisis, are also contributing to it. Fleeting blackbucks and dancing peacocks might charm city folk, but they are a nightmare for farmers.

Attacks on humans by carnivores, particularly tigers, are newsworthy, but financial losses inflicted by wild herbivore raids often go under-reported.

At the Centre for Sustainable Development at the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune, we surveyed over 1,200 affected farmers across Maharashtra and conducted in-depth interviews of farmers in the Konkan region.

We accessed multiple data sou...