Displacement from Protected Areas and its implications for conservation and livelihoods-The case of Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary, Madhya Pradesh

The designation of Protected Areas (PAs) for biodiversity conservation has had negative implications for communities that derive their sustenance from such areas. Apart from restrictions on resource use, there have also been instances of people being displaced from areas that they had inhabited and that had been designated subsequently as PAs. Movements for greater justice and rights of marginal communities, have been iing the destitution that displacement wreaks on communities, particularly tribals. The present paper describes in detail, an ongoing resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) exercise from the Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh in terms of the rehabilitation package offered and the process of R&R. It also discusses the impacts that the displacement has had on the lives of the community in question. Finally, the implications of such relocation attempts for wildlife conservation are discussed. While the rehabilitation package offered in the case of Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary, as well as the overall attitude of the agency that carried out the relocation, seems to have been a significant improvement over previously recorded instances of such exercises, it emerges that displacement has nevertheless had a significant negative impact on the livelihood of the people, at least in the short run. So far, the R&R exercise has been unsatisfactory with respect to several aspects such as identification of suitable land for resettlement, comprehensive inclusion of beneficiary families, assistance to tide over uncertain agricultural output and incomes during the relocation period, provision of alternatives to fodder and non-timber forest resources previously available from forests and creation of communications and road networks for resettled villages. It would require sustained investments by government and non-government agencies, in the medium to long run, for the displaced community to be able to reconstruct livelihoods and regain socio-economic levels that prevailed inside the sanctuary. An important lesson emerging from the Kuno experience is that trauma to the community could be mitigated if the implementing agency concentrates right from the start on genuine mobilisation, and investment in building the community's capacity to deal with the drastic changes that displacement entails.