IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Rangarajan, M. | |
| Battles for Nature: Contesting Wildlife Conservation in Twentieth-Century India | |
| 2006 Book Chapter | |
In a society as multilayered as colonial India's, conservation was a deeply divisive enterprise. Such contradictions hardly disappeared with the coming of independence. If anything, the divisions within the communities of conservation in India are as deep as the chasm that separates them as a whole from the votaries of the present model of development. Of the whole range of issues taken up by environmental groups in India, from big dams to air pollution, displacement to chemical waste disposal, the wildlife question brings most starkly to light deep divisions even among those who claim to be on the same side of the fence.3 Acrimony arises from legacies of the past. The tiger may be a symbol of ecological renewal but this leaves open the issue of who is to guard it and from whom. If officials a century ago debated how best to wipe them out, scientists, activists, and officials today ask how best to protect its numbers in the wild. Yet the same parks that are refuges for wildlife are part of a larger government-owned forest estate, subject to the wider pulls and pressures of economic growth and political upheaval. More critically, the currents that challenge statist and market-led models of resource control over woodlands, pastures, and fisheries also question the ways in which wildlife reserves are administered. A century ago, nationalist upsurges or popular protest took place in an imperial setting while today's debates rage in a democracy where ideals of equality coexist with deep socioeconomic disparities. Much of the debate about nature is actually about people, about how power ought to be shared, or the wielders of high office made more accountable. Over the past quarter century, with the maturing of democratic impulses, the debates have become more fractious. What is at issue is who exercises power and how to combine empowerment with environmental repair. The historical record offers insights into such dilemmas. |
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