Download free conservation and development in india: reimagining wilderness

This has been a major impediment in the implementation of the KNP, as two-thirds of it is comprised of Shimshali territory. As the map in Figure 5. It comprises about sq. Within this area, Shimshalis maintain several village settlements, enough irrigated land to fulfill their food requirements, and over a dozen communal pastures for seasonal herding of their sizable livestock population.

Shimshalis offer a number of reasons to explain why they have been resisting the conversion of their territory into a national park. To begin with, Shimshalis argue that the Khunjerab National Park was created without any consultation with the affected communities regarding its boundaries, regulations, or management. They were simply informed that most of their pastures and even some of their village settlements were now part of a state-owned national park.

Beyond concerns about the arbitrary and undemocratic foundation of the KNP, the main apprehension of Shimshalis is the loss of their land and livelihood. The comunity Exhibit 5. An enforcement of park regulations would entail a complete ban on grazing and hunting in most Shimshali pastures, so that wildlife species and their habitats can be preserved.

This would directly threaten Shimshali livelihoods not only because of the loss of pastures, but also due to the prohibition on hunting certain wildlife predators of livestock. Who will compensate us for this loss?

We have to pay the price for conservation. First our rights should be honored, then those of wildlife. For Shimshalis, conservation—as promoted by international conservation organizations—is not of inherent value because it entails an appropriation of their territory, and because one of the rare species that needs to be protected is a deadly predator of livestock. Yet, to prevent their displacement by the Khunjerab National Park, Shimshalis have themselves implemented a self-imposed ban on wildlife hunting.

As a Shimshali shepherd commented to me: We believe in conservation. Indeed, Shimshalis go beyond claims of merely fulfilling the responsibilities that modern conservation expects of them.

How can someone come and tell me that these trees do not belong to me? The markhor Capra falconeri is alive because of us. Through such claims, Shimshalis challenge the dominant tendency of viewing nature as a self-existing, untouched entity, instead of one that is historically produced by and fundamentally linked to human activity and labor.

What does the DFO or the consultant know about conservation? A while back, a park official came and told us that we need to sign a Memorandum of Understanding and give up the rights to our territory for the KNP so that wildlife habitats can be protected. This is why the wildlife populations have decreased in these areas. And now the government is putting more pressure on us to accept the park so that wildlife in our 4 areas can be exploited.

Such statements assert a local aptitude for conservation that is presented as superior to that 5 of state institutions and international organizations, and also challenge the common portrayal of Shimshalis as incapable stewards of nature Butz, My point is not to romanticize the local community, and its interest and capability in conservation.

Rather, I wish to point out that conservation agencies in the Northern Areas assume a priori that local communities lack credibility and experience with respect to conservation.

They also do not research whether community practices might have a positive role in wildlife conservation in areas where there remain sizable numbers of rare species. The tendency to undervalue the role of local communities in sustaining nature has indeed been a constitutive feature of global conservation discourse. It is assumed that natives lack ecological values that are supposedly the preserve only of Western elites Gareau, These narratives emerged from, and build upon a long-standing colonial discourse that helped to legitimize the appropriation of nature for varied interests including commercial exploitation, hunting pleasure, and strategic needs Rangarajan, However, the pressures on them to submit to park authorities kept increasing, as new programs and funds for conservation poured into the Northern Areas in the wake of a renewed global—and subsequently, national—concern for biodiversity preservation.

They strongly felt—and feared—that a small, marginal border community like Shimshal could eventually suffer massive state action unless it was able to counter its negative image, and negotiate cordially with conservation organizations. Created in , the key purpose of the SNT was to formally articulate, and give material force to the representational claims discussed in the previous section—claims to livelihood dependency, native authenticity and ownership, environmental responsibility, and a place- based conservation capability.

The plan describes the socio- economic context of the Shimshali community, the ways in which a conservation ethic has been historically practiced, and the community-initiated programs through which natural 8 resource management is envisioned in the future. Following the tropes of developmentalist writing, these programs are divided up into implementation phases, with various activities planned for each phase.

The SNT management plan has been distributed to all the major government and non-governmental organizations working on conservation and development in the Northern Areas, and is also accessible through the Internet. The very language, format, and content of SNT practices reflect how communities have come to understand and reconfigure the nature of the power exercised by international conservation organizations. As the management plan explains: While we appreciate recent efforts by external agencies to develop [a] community-based nature conservation project…it is not enough that external initiatives be managed locally; rather, a culturally and contextually-sensitive nature stewardship programme should be developed and initiated, as well as managed, from within the community SNT, The emphasis on such a moral ecology grounded in religion has an important discursive effect—it provides a way to unsettle the scientific authority of international conservation agencies by highlighting how the interpretation of nature and its conservation through ethical values is more locally 10 appropriate and signifi cant than one based on scientific principles.

However, this is not to suggest that religious and cultural practice does not have any real role in local systems of nature conservation. On the contrary, long-standing religious and cultural institutions have enabled Shimshalis—who follow the Ismaili sect of Islam—to collectively organize for conservation efforts ranging from hunting control to pasture management.

The SNT itself is managed partly by local volunteer corps and boy scouts, who are affiliated with the jamat khana religious center in Ismaili-Muslim practice.

While the key purpose of SNT is a strategic celebration and vindication of an indigenous, ecological sovereignty, the role of external support is also valued. Indeed, as SNT members emphasize, foreign scholars from universities in Japan, Canada, and the United States have 11 played a critical role in shaping local consciousness and enabling community initiatives.

Unfortunately, such collaborations have rarely materialized, as international conservation organizations continue to insist that any project of conservation in Shimshal must be linked to the conversion of community-owned land into the KNP. Reorienting Livelihoods The ban on livestock grazing in the Khunjerab National Park was marginally enforced until , when the newly formed government organization—the National Council for Conservation of Wildlife NCCW —drafted a plan for a stricter enforcement of the Category II criteria.

Th e affected villages nevertheless continued to practice their customary grazing rights, particularly since the government was not forthcoming with the promised compensation. Eventually, in , all the aggrieved communities except Shimshal signed an agreement with the KNP authorities that allowed them some concessions on their grazing rights as well a share in park-generated revenue in return for accepting the authority of the park Knudsen, While the ban on livestock grazing was somewhat relaxed, it soon gave way to a new emphasis on a reduction in livestock holdings.

This reduction has in effect become a pre- condition for obtaining the community share in park-generated revenue such as entry fees. Despite strong evidence of decreasing livestock ownership and grazing in the Northern Areas Kreutzmann, , KNP offi cials continue to claim otherwise. Such a claim about livestock holdings has thus become a tool in the hands of KNP officials to retain their hold over communities and their resources.

Conservation NGOs, on the other hand, concede that dependence on livestock herding is indeed decreasing in areas affecting the KNP. This, however, does not necessarily bring any credit for the community. As a manager at an international conservation NGO remarked: Communities are not reducing their livestock because they care about conservation.

It is happening itself because people are increasingly seeking off-farm employment. Reimagining the Visitor Experience: The Gordon River Later, the group is greeted warmly as they board a barge moored on the river, their accommodation for the night. They enjoy fine food, and their hosts point out on a map where the seafood came from — just nearby from the coast.

Inspired by a few glasses of wine, the group discusses and debates their views and their shared experiences of the day, late into the night. Positions are challenged and friends are made. On the way to their cabin, the visitor stops to enjoy the stars, the clearest they have ever seen against the pitch black sky — so far from anywhere but at the heart of it all.

The visitors and two others have chosen to take a seaplane out. They take off from the Gordon and fly up and over the rapids and over the Franklin, so well protected now. They glimpse intrepid rafters on the rivers, see the mountain ranges rising around them and the lake waters in the distance. The visitor feels privileged to have seen such truly special places, and despite the wet and the cold and the distance, they now understand why there has been such struggle to protect them, and why so many would want to visit.

The region offers a variety of waterbased ecotourism opportunities including small and large boat touring, kayak tours, overnight accommodated cruises, food experiences, and wildlife spotting. A number of cruise options are available to experience the picturesque landscape; running day and night, every day of the year.

Cruise vessels range from small tendercrafts and boats, to large catamarans and cruise boats with viewing decks. Experiences range from just over an hour in duration, to overnight cruises. Kayaking and jetboat rides are also popular among visitors seeking more adventurous options.

Other activities include diving, and visiting the discovery centre and floating underwater observatory where visitors are able to descend 10 metres underwater for uninterrupted degree views. Flight-seeing is also an increasingly popular choice for visitors, enabling tourists to fully comprehend the enormity of the natural landscape from above, and to take advantage of incredible photo opportunities. Helicopters and small seaplane fly tours start at 10 minutes and can go up to 3 hours in duration, with options for adding guided walks and food and wine experiences in remote locations, such as mountain tops.

With visitor numbers to Tasmania reaching record levels, repositioning Strahan once again as a wilderness hub could see a new and significant visitor boom on the West Coast. Reimagining the Visitor Experience: The Gordon River …the visitor joins another group in a strange and wonderful glass pod; with the engine submerged underwater, the pod moves gracefully through the water, further upriver, and around the next bend.

As they pass out of sight from the boat, a soundtrack begins to play inside the pod. The daily lives, and the conflicts and controversies of aborigines, colonials, miners, piners, explorers, photographers, dam workers, protestors, local residents and the growing tourism industry are projected in the crystal pod and onto the river.

Back at the landing again, the visitor and a few others leave the day-trippers, and are ferried upriver on a small boat. They trail their hands through the water.

Coming up alongside the eroded hollows at the base of the river wall, they test their voices and marvel at the echoes and the subsequent silence. A sense of anticipation builds as they travel closer to Sir John Falls and the site of the Franklin blockade.

The visitor imagines they are on a pilgrimage of sorts, making the long journey to a site of such significance, with its myriad implications for modern society. Mount Read supports an extraordinary number of rare and endemic tree species in rainforest communities of real conservation significance. Climatologists have been able to establish a continuous record of climatic change over more than 3, years by studying the tree rings of these ancient trees.

Huon pine is also an icon of Tasmania, unique to the state, with strong historical links to the development of West Coast settlements and shipbuilding trade in the convict era. The golden timber is easy to work, fragrant, and extremely durable and rot resistant due to its natural oils. Mt Read, sitting among glacial lakes, is an extreme wilderness environment — it is the wettest place in Tasmania, with 3,mm rainfall per annum; it experiences frequent snowfall; and was devastated by a bushfire in the s, which stopped just short of the Huon Pine.

However, Mt Read also has a strong human history, of Aboriginal settlement, the Hercules Mines — , settlements and other activities on its slopes.

Access is carefully controlled and limited numbers are able to visit each year with a licensed tour operator, via 4WD track and boardwalk. As an attraction, the Mt Read Huon Pine could draw a broad range of visitors, from those motivated by the idea of building a strong connection to place; to the more spiritual aspects of the site, and its ancient links; as well as those interested in environmental systems and conservation.

It is a full group of ten today, and they stand shuffling their food on the pavement, eager to head off and see what they have come to see. They pile into two four-wheel drives for a bumpy ride into what is seemingly the middle of nowhere. Some way along a steep old mining road, they suddenly stop.

Everyone has to wash down their hands and boots in specially designed trays and tubs in the back of the vehicles. They wipe clean their cameras and any tripods. They empty their pockets of lighters and matches lest they cause any damage to this precious environment. Dressed up as if for a factory tour — covers on their shoes — they enter the forest.

Anticipation builds. Some time later, the visitor has lost track of time and direction — unconvinced that the guide is taking them the most direct way to this tree. It has begun raining and visibility is declining rapidly. Then, high on the slopes of Mt Read, the guide pulls out a big bundle of string from his pack, and lays it along the forest floor.

Beginning at the beginning, they find humans in the Middle East building the earliest permanent farming villages. Follow the string for 7 metres, and nearly 7, years later King Tutankhamen was alive in Egypt. Another metre, another thousand years — the Romans span an enormous empire and Jesus is born. A metre and a half from the end, Rome falls, and the prophet Muhammad dies Most of the group has only been alive for three to five centimetres. Significant mining and logging has occurred around this area over the last ten.

Given the unique status of the Mt Read Huon Pine, and sensitive surrounding environments, it has a limited visitor carrying capacity and will need careful ongoing conservation management and protection.

However, innovative tourism products could offer fulfilling experiences around the concept of the Mt Read Huon Pine, for a larger number of visitors than present, without having to spend significant time viewing the tree itself. Green Guardians is a voluntourism program in Tasmania where visitors undertake conservation activities as a small proportion of guided tours.

This tree they have come to see has only been legally protected for the last three. The Mt Read Huon Pine is currently under one of the highest levels of protection offered by the state of Tasmania, and limited access is already available to licensed tour operators. Risks to the tree associated with greater awareness of it and its location will have to be carefully managed. But where is the tree they have come to see? The guide points forward, and they adjust their eyes, through the mist, to a spot some twenty metres away.

Dozens and dozens and dozens of seemingly individual trees are all joined together. One tree that has cloned himself again and again and set down new roots to survive. Parts may have died, but this tree, this organism has prospered away quietly, spreading over a hectare in this far corner of the world for the past 10, years or more. The visitor is shown a cross section of a Huon Pine, what looks like a mere twig, and asked to count its rings. This twig is more mature than most trees they have seen, and the guide explains that at least one stem of Huon Pine in this stand has over 4, rings, tracking its history and the changing climate in which it grew up.

The guide teaches them to distinguish between the ancient Huon Pine, and the proliferation of other rare plants and pines in this sanctuary — King Billy, Pencil, Chestnut, Creeping and Celery-Top, some of them near here a thousand years old themselves alone. And all too soon they must leave this place. Returning through the forest in the rain, they emerge cold and wet and clamber back into the four-wheel drives for an uncomfortable trip back.

Nobody minds. They have come all this way for a reason, and they are happy — some mystically, almost transcendentally so. They have truly experienced the globally significant Tasmanian wilderness, and they have seen the oldest living tree in the world.

Collecting their various belongings from the vehicles, each guest is treated to a parting gift: a tiny Huon Pine seedling, their own little piece of history. World class ecotourism experiences are one of the main reasons for international and domestic visitors to travel to Tasmania. Well-managed eco-opportunities such as these, operated by private enterprises, are generally able to offer a level and type of visitor experience, customer service and innovation that is difficult for government agencies, such as the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service, to provide using limited in-house resources and expertise.

There is significant opportunity for more, new, low-impact, environmentally sensitive wilderness accommodation to be developed inside and around the edges of the TWWHA, in order to deliver more immersive World Heritage wilderness experiences for visitors — and provide greater accommodation capacity for visitors to the TWWHA. Tasmania delivers the most contemporary wilderness World Heritage Area experience offering shared, life changing, moments. This section provides an assessment of market demand for wilderness accommodation and pre-feasibility assessment of opportunities suited to private sector investment in the TWWHA, as well as the principles for seeking investment.

Changes in traveller preferences and expectations, and the types of experiences offered in competitor destinations is affecting visitation to TWWHA. There has been strong growth in the number of nights spent in Tasmanian eco-accommodation in recent years. Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra. New and innovative examples of commercial, wilderness accommodation in and around the TWWHA — with associated food and wine experiences, guided tours and more — would provide greater opportunities for visitors to experience, learn about, and become advocates for unique wilderness destinations, which they may otherwise have not been able to visit.

Iconic wilderness accommodation developments, when supported with extraordinary natural or cultural settings and experiences, also provide a strong aspirational message for potential visitors, and increase broader awareness of a visitor destination. Investment in small-scale wilderness accommodation will make the TWWHA more attractive for new, higher-yield markets; while existing accommodation options should also attract greater. Established in to help protect the rainforests, the lodge runs their own hydro-electric generator, has an active energy efficiency programme, and recycles all possible rubbish.

Precincts with the potential to support a wilderness lodge, and identified as priority locations for wilderness accommodation through the Reimagining Project see Figure 9 include: 1. Gordon River: on-water or in the wilderness, on the Gordon or nearby, potentially as a satellite from Strahan.

The Tarkine: as a base for a wilderness walk across the Tarkine or for water-based adventure experiences on the Arthur River. A range of factors will affect the commercial viability of any wilderness accommodation proposal.

Factors that will need to be carefully considered by the Government during the Expression of Interest process include: time and costs associated with the procurement and approval processes; site appeal; site flexibility; tourist markets for the product; and intellectual property.

The lodge supports local research projects that generate scientific subsidies for the conservation of the surrounding natural area. Aviation has provided the means for humans to access some of the most remote parts of Tasmania since the s when an air strip was first established on the West Coast at Queenstown. Light aircraft first started flying into Melaleuca in the s, establishing a direct air route into a part of Tasmania previously only accessible through a multi-day trek or sea voyage. In the s light aircraft started regularly landing on the original Lake Pedder beach and float plane services commenced into Strahan.

In the late s an airstrip was established just outside Cradle Mountain. Currently commercial air access is limited to seasonal daily air services by light aircraft to Melaleuca and Bathurst Harbour, along with chartered float plane tours by tour companies operating out of Hobart and Strahan. Regular light aircraft services to Strahan have been attempted by commercial carriers at different times over the past thirty years, most recently in , but were discontinued due to poor patronage.

Airstrips are maintained at Queenstown, Strahan and Melaleuca, providing significant infrastructure capacity at these key gateways to the wilderness. Helicopters have provided critical access into more remote landscapes for industrial, land management and public safety purposes; however, the TWWHA Management Plan has restricted helicopter access for tourism and recreational purposes.

In order to create and encourage new experiences, and to enhance visitation and dispersal, it is a priority for industry to encourage and foster greater air access into the 1. Expanding the capacity for visitors to access the TWWHA through a range of aviation modes provides opportunities for new visitor markets to experience these destinations. As the visitor trends to Tasmania and the West Coast indicate a contracting average length of stay — more frequent but shorter visits — providing the means for more visitors to access the TWWHA by air will encourage greater regional dispersal.

It will also encourage new visitor markets, including higher spending visitors, to experience the further reaches of the state where previously they may have been discouraged by long driving distances. Heli-touring and other air-touring by light aircraft or floatplanes is a common and popular visitor experience in areas of high nature conservation, providing unique perspectives over landscapes, and with minimal visitor impact on the natural environment.

Strahan could also re-emerge as a major destination and gateway to the TWWHA with the establishment of regular, relatively affordable air services directly from the major population centres, reducing the tyranny of distance. The strip is metres long by 30 metres wide and is made of white quartzite gravel; only permitting landing for certified pilots with small short take-off and landing STOL aircrafts. The airstrip is used primarily to service hiking needs by bringing in or picking up tourists completing the South Coast or Port Davey Tracks which meet at Melaleuca, as well as guided day trips for visitors to experience the area.

The area has limited facilities including a ranger station, two huts for walkers, and campsites nearby. Expanding or sealing the length of the airstrip, along with installing GPS Navigation Aids, would significantly improve the reliability of existing air services. A GPS Approach will improve the reliability of services to the area, which is prone to high turbulence and difficult weather, by providing location and time information in all atmospheric conditions to pilots.

An infrastructure upgrade would support existing visitor activities and tourism operations in the remote South-West while also encouraging new visitor experiences and activities in the region. It would also potentially introduce new routes to access the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, including charter tour flights from Launceston and Melbourne.

Enabling larger aircraft to service Melaleuca would also assist in developing greater economies of scale to reduce costs for tourists, opening the destination to new visitor markets, and increasing the viability of transport operations.

Source: Cost estimates are based on previous project experience and online research, including consultation with AirTasmania during this project. Under the current TWWHA Management Plan, , extension of the existing airstrip at Melaleuca is permitted as long as it does not intrude to within 30 metres of the Moth or Melaleuca creeks, and maintains the same alignment as the present airstrip. The GPS Approach has no implications for the current Management Plan or Parks and Wildlife policy, as it would only increase the frequency of arrivals.

Strahan airstrip is located 3. The Strahan airstrip is currently used primarily for private light charter flights. The airstrip has a North-South orientation runway with a bitumen pavement of x 18 metres contained by a gravel runway of x 30 metres, contained within a runway strip of x 90 metres which is delineated by white gable markers on its extremities.

The runway is lit to provide for night take-off and landing operations. The runway lights are pilot activated at a frequency of The reporting officer can manually operate lights with the Gate key.

As an established visitor destination, the Strahan township provides a broad range of accommodation and hospitality options, along with a range of attractions, tours and visitor experiences. The Strahan airstrip has been identified as the airstrip with the most potential for future development on the West Coast, due to its orientation, location and existing infrastructure. Introducing a regular air service to Strahan during a period of low visitor growth to the region would be a major strategic investment by a carrier, requiring a long-term outlook on the market potential.

This investment would need to be heavily support by the local tourism industry, local government and West Coast community, along with the State Government, State and Regional Tourism Organisations.

On-ground support, including transport and logistical arrangements for visitors arriving in Strahan via air would need to be developed. Marketing and public relations support would also be required, to introduce the new market proposition of travelling by air to the West Coast. Some capital would also be required to upgrade passenger facilities at the Strahan Airport in order to provide a reasonable level of comfort and the necessary facilities to what may initially be a premium visitor experience see Package Model for Air Access to Strahan.

In the long-term, there is significant potential for regular air services to Strahan to bring increased visitor numbers and new markets into the West Coast region and wilderness areas. However, this will require substantial investments in infrastructure at Strahan to provide capacity for larger aircraft. It is recommended that a working group of key stakeholders be established to progress the opportunity and establish a detailed business case for introducing a regular air service to Strahan.

This group should include representatives of the Tasmanian Government, West Coast Council, local tourism and aquaculture industries. This working group should consider what public assistance could be offered to support a service, including shortterm business and marketing assistance for proponents, along with required infrastructure upgrades at the Strahan Airstrip, and on-ground support at Strahan.

Starting with an initial twice-weekly service over the peak tourism season, using a single-engine light aircraft, departing from Hobart and arriving in Strahan, an all-inclusive two-night package could be developed; incorporating iconic visitor experiences of the region including Gordon River cruising and the West Coast Wilderness Railway, as well as unique small group options for adventure or personalised food and wine experiences — plus on-ground transport and accommodation.

A single-engine light aircraft can be managed on the existing airstrip and does not require any substantial capital investment to the airstrip. However, in order to support the viability of such a service, a significant investment in product development and marketing support will be required. While in the short-term, this service would deliver relatively low numbers of additional visitors to the region, it would assist in reaching new markets, establishing air access as a valuable part of the visitor experience of the TWWHA, and open the opportunity for more regular passenger services in the future.

As infrastructure to support light aircraft services to the TWWHA is currently limited to Melaleuca and Strahan, alternative solutions such as floatplane and helicopter transport and touring should be encouraged.

Fixed-wing floatplanes and helicopters offer important advantages, with as minimal on-ground infrastructure requirements, enabling access to some of the more remote regions of the TWWHA. Floatplane and helicopter tours are a feature of the visitor experience in comparable destinations, including the wilderness areas of New Zealand and Canada, and would provide an environmentally low-impact and commercially sustainable transport solution for Tasmania.

Floatplane and helicopter operators already operate across Tasmania, and the opportunity presents to expand these activities across the TWWHA. They claimed rights to NTFPs, grazing, fishing, forest management, intellectual property, and worship at cultural sites rights mentioned in the section of the FRA on community forest rights. The Soligas followed this with claims for cultivated land for individual households.

Almost all households that claimed individual rights to cultivated land received these rights in Community rights were difficult to obtain, however, and it was only in October that such rights were granted to 32 Soliga settlements in the BRT, covering about half the area and settlements.

An additional 10 settlements were granted community forest rights in the first part of , leaving 20 settlements in the BRT that are yet to receive community forest rights. Parallel to the rights-claiming process of the Soligas, in January the. The implication of this declaration is that eight settlements in the core zone face relocation to outside the protected area.

Financing of conservation in India. There are protected areas in India, of which 50 are tiger reserves. Budgetary allocations are skewed disproportionately toward tiger reserves, which receive about 70 percent of the national conservation budget; the remaining protected areas get only 30 percent. The Karnataka state government matches these allocations, thus doubling the budget of these tiger reserves, which stands at INR million USD 10 million.

The contribution of non-governmental sources to conservation in India is not readily compiled because national and international conservation donors tend to make grants directly to research and action groups. An alternate approach to conservation. The Soligas held a series of meetings to devise a community-based conservation plan, which, they hoped, would enable them to play a central role in managing the BRT landscape. The plan contained detailed proposals on, for example, weed control; fire; the prevention of hunting; and the harvesting of NTFPs.

The Soligas proposed the adoption of a collaborative institutional and governance model between the Soligas, the state, and conservation groups. All 62 Soliga settlements in the BRT ratified the plan, but financial and state support has not been forthcoming.

To the contrary, state conservation practices have been strengthened. Our economy needs to be viewed as a subset of a larger economy of natural resources and ecosystem services which sustain us … a viable tiger population undoubtedly symbolizes a mitigation strategy for climate change. This will create a huge carbon sink in the form of tiger-bearing forests.

An alternative approach to conservation begins with the implementation of the FRA in all protected areas. A second step is the establishment of protected-area management committees with local, state, and civil-society representation, as mandated in the WLPA.

In conceiving alternative approaches to conservation, we should acknowledge different definitions of conservation. The forest administration and conservationists, on the other hand, consider a closed forest as the ideal condition — which also resonates with the state goal of carbon sequestration.

A Life with Wildlife: From princely India to the present. New Delhi: Harper Collins. Tiger Fire. New Delhi: Aleph. Conservation-induced displacement: recent perspectives from India. Displacement and relocation of protected areas: A synthesis and analysis of case studies. Delhi: Permanent Black. They constitute about 8 percent of the Indian population.

In Bhagwat, S.