India, Nov. 10 -- India's wildlife conservation/species-reintroduction efforts often focus on the rise in animal numbers. While numbers matter, making them the centrepiece of the narrative glosses over the pressures on habitat and range. When conservation success spills over the space available to accommodate growing animal populations, human-animal conflict inevitably follows. This tension was underscored again last week, when the residents of a Rajasthan village assaulted a forest team that was tracking a cheetah that had strayed from the neighbouring Kuno National Park and had killed a buffalo calf. This demonstrates that even a small founder population is straying beyond the park, implying how little buffer actually exists.

As wildli...