In India, protected areas cover less than 5% of the nation, but continue to provide quality habitat for high densities of tigers, elephants, leopards and many other wildlife species. Millions of people live within a few miles of these reserves, sharing space and natural resources with wildlife. Effective conservation efforts by WCS and our national partners over the last 30 years have caused the populations of tigers, leopards and elephants to rebound, particularly in the Western Ghats. One consequence is that animals increasingly venture outside of the reserves, where they come into contact with people. Between 2000 and 2010, over 45,000 claims for wildlife-related damages were filed with the government. Though national compensation policies do exist, research by Dr. Krithi Karanth, in 2013, found that fewer than 30% of households that had incurred losses from wildlife reported filing for and receiving payments. Government is understaffed and under-resourced, and thus unable to assist in a timely manner. Human-wildlife conflict has a significant impact on local livelihoods, and the absence of fair and timely compensation is eroding people’s tolerance for wildlife and the reserves. Helping the government to find a cost-efficient way to fulfil its obligation to compensate affected families is, therefore, an essential first step in opening a broader dialog about the role of the reserves, and wildlife more generally, in regional development. In July 2015, with support from Oracle Foundation and National Geographic’s Big Cat Initiative, the WildSeve system was launched in villages near Bandipura and Nagarahole Tiger Reserves. Working with government agencies, WildSeve developed a standardized set of application forms for each of the five types of human-wildlife incidents (crop raiding, livestock predation, property damage, human injury, and human death). With the help of WCS, people who have suffered wildlife-related damages complete and sign the forms and file them with the appropriate government agency. By linking this support to a toll free number with a web portal, WildSeve provides a simple and reliable response and case tracking system. When a wildlife conflict is reported by phone, our field teams respond within 24 hours, and assist the family in filing a claim. The web portal then allows the government agency and WCS to track each case until compensation is paid, and provides previously lacking performance measures showing how quickly the average case is resolved. These case histories also provide valuable information on the spatial distribution of wildlife-conflicts, the species involved, and whether farming and livestock raising practices could be modified to avoid future incidents. Using this new information and working closely with local farmers allowed us to advise that switching from cultivation of horse gram (a bean commonly eaten in southern India) would help reduce crop raiding by elephants. Similarly, focusing on communities that were repeatedly subject to livestock losses from tigers and leopard led us to help construct 12 livestock protection sheds and plan to build more where they are most needed. Combining more efficient compensation for human-wildlife conflicts, and successful measures to reduce the incidence of conflicts provide key building blocks for a strategic approach to managing how people and wildlife interact. Over time, we hope that the combination of fewer conflicts with wildlife, and more satisfactory interaction with government when incidents occur, will provide a starting point for broader discussions about the role of wildlife in regional development.