Conservation and Development in India: Reimagining Wilderness

221 Pages·2018·8.048 MB·English

by  Shonil Bhagwat (editor)

Conservation and Development
in India
Despite decades of efforts to integrate conservation and development, India is
torn between two very different worldviews of peoples’ place in the country’s
natural environment. This book takes a critical look at nature conservation
and poverty alleviation in India. It opens up discussion of the conservation–
development nexus in a country that stands at a major crossroads, where forces
of neoliberalism, globalisation and urbanisation are driving the future of India’s
environment.
As the book shows, conservation in India is increasingly concerned with cre-
ating ‘theme parks’ – inviolate, albeit isolated, spaces for wild nature, whereas
development is concerned with fast-tracking the construction of built infrastruc-
ture while also rolling out nationwide welfare programmes – promising food,
clothing and shelter for the poorest of the poor living in rural India. Conservation
and development therefore have very different motivations and attempts to find
a common ground have been fraught with challenges. This has been particularly
so on the fringes of wildlife parks, where the rural poor come in frequent contact
with wild animals to the detriment of both people and wildlife.
Chapters are written by leading scholars on India to provide a vision of the
future of Indian nature conservation. While focused on India, the book will also
be of interest to scholars and researchers of conservation and development more
globally. As a ‘rising power’, the world’s eyes are set on India’s development tra-
jectory and there is unprecedented interest in the course of development that the
world’s largest democracy takes in the decades to come.
Shonil Bhagwat is an academic at the Open University, UK. As an interdisci-
plinary scholar with a background in natural and social sciences, his research
interests centre on the links between environment and development. His research
addresses the perceived grand environmental challenges within the context of
growing discussion on the Anthropocene, the age of humans. He was previously
Course Director of the MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management at
the University of Oxford. He has DPhil and MSc degrees from the University of
Oxford, and MSc and BSc degrees from the University of Pune, India.
Earthscan Conservation and Development series
Series Editor: W.M. Adams, Moran Professor of Conservation
and Development, Department of Geography, University of
Cambridge, UK
Conservation and Sustainable Development
Linking Practice and Policy in Eastern Africa
Edited by Jon Davies
Conservation and Environmental Management in Madagascar
Edited by Ivan R. Scales
Conservation and Development in Cambodia
Exploring Frontiers of Change in Nature, State and Society
Edited by Sarah Milne and Sanghamitra Mahanty
Just Conservation
Biodiversity, Well-being and Sustainability
By Adrian Martin
Biodiversity Conservation in Southeast Asia
Challenges in a Changing Environment
Edited by Serge Morand, Claire Lajaunie and Rojchai Satrawaha
Conservation and Development in India
Reimagining Wilderness
Edited by Shonil Bhagwat
For further information please visit the series page on the Routledge website:
http://www.routledge.com/books/series/ECCAD/
Conservation and Development
in India
Reimagining Wilderness
Edited by Shonil Bhagwat
First published 2018
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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 2018 selection and editorial matter, Shonil Bhagwat; individual
chapters, the contributors
The right of Shonil Bhagwat to be identified as the author of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bhagwat, Shonil, editor.
Title: Conservation and development in India: reimagining wilderness /
edited by Shonil Bhagwat.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY : Routledge, 2018. | Series:
Earthscan conservation and development | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017035716| ISBN 9781138922334 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781315685908 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Nature conservation—India. | Nature conservation—
Economic aspects—India. | Economic development—India.
Classification: LCC QH77.I4 C65945 2018 | DDC 333.720954—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017035716
ISBN: 978-1-138-92233-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-68590-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Goudy
by Swales & Willis, Exeter, Devon, UK
Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables ix
List of contributors x
Preface xii
1 Introduction: Conservation and development in India 1
SHONIL BHAGWAT
2 The impact of the Anthropocene in the locality: Eastern
India in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries 19
VINITA DAMODARAN
3 For the environment, against conservation: Conflict
between renewable energy and biodiversity
protection in India 40
SHIKHA LAKHANPAL AND ASHWINI CHHATRE
4 Species and sites matter: Understanding human–wildlife
interactions from 5,000 surveys in India 61
KRITHI K. KARANTH AND AKSHAY SURENDRA
5 Thinking like an elephant, looking beyond protected areas 83
TARSH THEKAEKARA
6 Biodiversity in community-managed landscapes: A view
of the potential and constraints in the van panchayats of
the Kumaon Himalayas 109
GHAZALA SHAHABUDDIN AND RAJESH THADANI
vi Contents
7 Rethinking landscapes: History, culture and local
knowledge in the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple
Tiger Reserve, India 132
NITIN D. RAI AND C. MADEGOWDA
8 Conservation and development: Beyond national parks
and sanctuaries 142
SUSHIL SAIGAL, SWATI CHALIHA, CHETNA NAHATA AND
SUNPREET KAUR
9 Ficus to filter: Understanding complexities of market
incentives for conserving biodiversity on private lands 164
ARSHIYA BOSE
10 Conclusions: Reimagining wilderness 193
SHONIL BHAGWAT
Index 200
Figures
1.1 A Google Earth snapshot of today’s landscapes on the
Indian subcontinent 2
1.2 Downgrading, downsizing and degazetting of protected
areas in India 3
1.3 Women making baskets from Lantana camara, an
invasive weed 7
1.4 Human–wildlife interactions take many different forms 8
1.5 A sacred grove in Rajasthan, India 10
1.6 Flamingos at Ameenpur Lake, Hyderabad, India 11
1.7 Shade-grown coffee plantations in Kodagu, India 13
2.1 The location of Noamundi in Jharkhand, India 26
3.1 The locations of the three field sites 42
3.2 Access to public land has been blocked by the developers
of the Kukke hydropower project 48
3.3 The Great Himalayan National Park along with the
eco-development zone 51
4.1 Location of study sites in India 62
4.2 Example of crop loss in India 72
4.3 Example of livestock loss in India 73
5.1 Map of the Gudalur Forest Division 86
5.2 People’s interaction with elephants in Thorapally near
Gudalur in the Nilgiri Hills, Tamil Nadu, India 91
5.3 People’s interaction with elephants in O’Valley near
Gudalur in the Nilgiri Hills, Tamil Nadu, India 98
5.4 The range of human–elephant interactions near Gudalur
in the Nilgiri Hills, Tamil Nadu, India 102
6.1 Banj oak forest showing a diverse understorey and tree
species, thick canopy cover and presence of large trees 111
6.2 Chir pine forest with sparse understorey and low canopy cover 112
viii Figures
6.3 Map showing location of the two study villages within
the state of Uttarakhand 113
6.4 Women collecting leaf litter from the oak forests for mulching 117
6.5 A lopped banj oak tree 122
6.6 A heavily lopped forest patch showing oak coppice bushes
and young pine regeneration 123
6.7 Density of regenerative size classes of banj oak in
oak-dominated forest 124
6.8 A degraded banj oak forest showing absence of
shrubs/saplings, cleanly swept forest floor, predominance
of young trees and moderate canopy cover 126
7.1 Soliga cultural sites within the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple
Tiger Reserve 137
8.1 Greater Adjutant Storks (Leptoptilos dubius) on garbage dump at
Deepor Beel, Guwahati, Assam, India 145
8.2 Increasing inflow of tourists affecting the ecology of Nilgiri
Biosphere Reserve, India 147
8.3 A female (front) and male (back) Western Hoolock gibbon
(Hoolock hoolock) from the Hoollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary in
Assam, India 152
8.4 Matheran landscape, Maharashtra, India 155
8.5 Real estate developments within the confines of the
Okhla Bird Sanctuary, India 156
8.6 Imagery showing the location of the Okhla Bird Sanctuary 157
9.1 Contrast between depleted tree cover (left) and restored tree
cover (right) in shade-grown coffee plantations of Kodagu, India 166
9.2 Coffee plantation with silver oak 172
Tables
4.1 Site characteristics 64
4.2 Loss and mitigation across sites 67
4.3 Model-averaged beta estimates with standard error for
wild species 68
4.4 Mean probability estimates (with error) for study sites 76
6.1 Details of social surveys 114
6.2 Summary of variables used for assessing anthropogenic
use intensity and values observed 115
6.3 Criteria for classification of size classes of banj oak 115
6.4 Regulations and prevalence of extractive activities in
the study villages 116
9.1 Summary of quantitative data on outcomes of
shade-grown certification 174