Forests for people
Sunil

Rising human-animal conflict is a matter of concern for management of
forests and wildlife. Studies, seminars and international projects are held
on this issue. But most of them miss the central point: The main cause of
depletion of forests, wildlife or natural resources is not their use by the
local village population, but the everincreasing demands of modern
civilisation.

    Dams, mines, industrial complexes, highways, colonisation, urbanisation
and modern agriculture have taken a huge toll on forests. These projects are
not stopped because they are presumed to be necessary for development.
Hence, forests are shrinking fast. So is the wildlife population. We want to
preserve the number of wild animals in an everdecreasing forest area. That
is a contradiction, an artificial way of protecting wildlife which cannot
succeed.

    The numbers of one or two wild species may grow artificially, prompting
wildlife authorities to boast of the achievement, but that hardly amounts to
real wildlife conservation. By declaring more areas as national parks and
sanctuaries, we are just trying to create islands of wildlife in an ocean of
anti-nature development.

    These islands are like enlarged zoos. But unlike zoos, they cannot be
fenced. Wild animals as well as local villagers living inside and outside
will keep moving in and out. They live in an open environment and not in
cages, and they have an age-old intricate relationship with nature and with
each other. This relationship needs to be strengthened and improved.

    Wildlife officials and experts forget this fundamental fact. Many of
them believe that forests are humanless entities, or can be turned into
that. That is an alien and false assumption, strengthened by international
funders and projects.

    Unlike perhaps in Europe and the US, there are no forests in India where
tribals and other forest-dwellers do not live or wander in or use the
forest. They are not settlers from outside, but have been living there for
thousands of years. Rockpaintings can be seen inside forests - in Bori and
Ratapani sanctuaries in the Satpuras and Vindhyas.

    However, the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 leaves little scope for the
needs, activities and rights of local tribals. Activities basic to their
survival have been made illegal. This has led to innumerable conflicts
between wildlife staff and local population in almost every national park or
sanctuary. It is more a 'parkpeople conflict' than an animal-human conflict.
Much of this conflict is unnecessary and avoidable. This can be resolved by
changing laws and rules, which will be beneficial for all parties involved -
local people, wildlife and forest staff. Wildlife cannot be saved without
cooperation and involvement of local communities. If their livelihood is
threatened or not ensured, they will become enemies rather than friends to
this endeavour to save wildlife.

    As a result, forest and wildlife staff end up guarding the forest from
local villagers rather than from real poachers. Their energies are wasted in
implementing unnecessary orders and rules against forestdwellers,most of
them tribals. Moreover, by more policing, and relying more and only on the
forest bureaucracy, forest and wildlife cannot be saved, as has been proved
by the experience so far.

    In the Satpura Tiger Reserve in Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh,
tribals have recently declared a satyagraha. They have been already
displaced by many projects in the past - a dam, a firing range, an ordnance
factory. Now they are being asked again to move out and vacate the place for
tigers. Their traditional use of forest and sale of minor forest produce is
being banned. Moreover, after a long struggle, the Tawa dam-displaced
tribals got fishing rights and rights of draw-down cultivation in Tawa
reservoir 10 years ago. These activities, their only source of livelihood,
are also being banned on the ground that the reservoir is included in the
Satpura National Park and the law does not permit them.

    Privately, forest officers accept that fishing and draw-down cultivation
does not harm wildlife. Nor are the local fish species endangered or
scheduled und


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