From the Gir National Park in Gujarat to the Sunderbans in West Bengal, lions and tigers are ranging far beyond territories administered by the forest department. Communities that have traditionally been accommodative are now unsettled, their patience worn thin by the rising incidents of human-animal conflicts. Yet, the debate on human-animal conflicts, an understanding of which is basic to conservation research and practice in India, has reached a strange impasse. Nobody quite knows what to do. Meanwhile, reality is outstripping knowledge as well as application.Gir National Park, Gujarat, western India