win-win situation

Deccan Herald, 27^th January 2002

CONTRARY to the widespread belief that the root of all problems of wildlife conservation stems from industrialisation, several other unknown evils that are having far reaching effects on wildlife and their habitats have been identified. It has been scientifically proved that one of the serious threats to wildlife is habitat fragmentation, which could be a result of developmental activities. The rise in human population and the need to grow more food has brought more land under agriculture than ever before, sacrificing pristine wildlife habitats in the process.

According to Dr Ullas Karanth of Wildlife Conservation Society, New York, ""The natural grasslands in the deltas of Gangas and the Brahmaputra were once home to an impressive assemblage of large animals including elephants, gaurs, barasingha, pygmy hog. Now these animals have gone extinct in most parts of their former range except in remnant patches in reserves like Corbett, Manas and Kaziranga and habitat loss is the major reason for the local extinction of these hoofed animals.""

These fragmentations for agriculture or human settlement inside forests have caused spatial separations of habitats that are seriously affecting ''habitat specific wildlife'' like elephants, tigers, rhinos, wild dogs, hornbills, lion tailed macaques and king cobras. These large vertebrates have specialised needs in terms of food habits and home ranges. Population augmentation has changed the equation between humans and wildlife. Wildlife that do not have a great degree of tolerance to habitat changes have lost most of their original homes and are reduced to isolated pockets.

Of the three per cent of the country''s land area designated for wildlife in the form of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, only one per cent is effectively protected. The Nagarahole National Park falls under this one per cent. Some forms of bio-diversity like micro-organisms, smaller mammals like rats, toddy cats, mongoose or birds like crows, mynas and barbets can withstand a great degree of disturbance. But the survival of large, extinction-prone species depends upon vast pristine areas. These areas have to be protected if large wildlife has to survive in the years to come.

Both tribals and non-tribals have been depending upon forests for various purposes. In the past, forests have sustained tribals and their requirement of food and medicines. The scenario today has changed drastically. These days the primary focus of collection of non-timber forest produce (NTFP) is for cash income rather than for sustenance.

In Karnataka, Kuruba tribals have inhabited the Nagarahole National Park. As in the rest of the state, the density even among these tribal communities has increased several folds. In the Nagarahole National Park that spans to an area of 643 sq kms, a total of around 6,000 Kurubas reside within the park limits. This human density of ten persons per sq km is very high. Harvesting of NTFP is no more sustainable.

The attitude, lifestyle and desires of the tribals living inside the forests have also changed over the years. They yearn for basic amenities like health, electricity, education, etc. And as the national parks are set aside for the protection of extinction-prone wildlife like tigers, elephants, etc., building up of infrastructural amenities for the tribals who live there has become impossible, as their hamlets are totally inaccessible. The requirement of ''cash income'' has seen them working as labourers in coffee plantations and in the Forest Department when employment is available. They are also used by outsiders for a variety of illegal activities.

Cultural change?

To the tribals, life in the forest is not a romantic sojourn. Regular contact with the outside world has brought about a drastic change in their cultural and economic environments.This change in attitude motivated them to demand from the Government ''rehabilitation packages''. The need of the hour was an attractive, innovative, well-implemented, participatory, voluntary resettlement package, which could be termed as a model endeavour.
In 1991 the State Government offered the tribals fertile land in West Nemmale in the Virajpet taluk of Kodagu district. But, the tribals were misguided to reject the package. In 1997, under the leadership of Living Inspiration for Tribals (LIFT), a voluntary organisation comprising several tribal leaders came to the state capital along with 50 tribal families to meet the forest minister demanding an attractive, participatory, land based rehabilitation.

Voluntary resettlement

Dr K Ullas Karanth, who was associated with the national park since late 1960s always advocated voluntary resettlement as a key to the success of any rehabilitation scheme, took keen interest and pushed this concept with the Central Government. Thus a Centrally-sponsored scheme called the ''Beneficiary Oriented Scheme for Tribal Development'' (BOTD) came into being. Under the scheme, each tribal family would be allotted five acres of farm land, housing, drinking water facilities, support for development of agricultural land, farming training, fuel and fodder lot, electricity and approach roads. Members of LIFT and Wildlife First, an wildlife NGO, earnestly worked towards leveraging the funds from the Central Government.

Despite opposition from some vested interests the project moved at a brisk pace and the first batch of tribals moved into their new homes in June 1998, and it was aptly called as ''Nagapura''. The new settlement, similar to the environments of Nagarahole, was a part of the reserve forest on the fringes of the park and thus there was no question of cultural uprootment. The Forest Department stood by their promise. The tribals were given farmland, support to develop it, fertilizers, seeds, housing, drinking water, electricity, etc. LIFT and Wildlife First monitored the progress of the project.

Farm planning was done in consultation with the University of Agricultural Sciences. In an innovative method, of the five acres two acres saw ragi being sown, cotton was planted in one acre as cash crop and the other two acres had horticultural plants like mango and chikku with intercrops of pulses and oil seeds. Fast growing trees are planted on the farm bunds to meet the fuel wood and fodder requirement of the tribals.
When their first crops were ready for harvesting and the whole project was seen as a model endeavour, it attracted a large number of other tribal families who appealed to the Forest Department for similiar rehabilitation. In the year 2000 another 154 families were voluntarily rehabilitated from different haadis in Nagarahole to Nagapura. Today there is no looking back for the 205 families who have made the right decision. Kencha fittingly says, ""Even wildlife need a place to stay and we were also looking for better future. This Government scheme came as a big boon to us"".

Manju, who was rehabilitated from the Gaddhe Haadi in Nagarhole aspires to be a teacher. He is now studying PU at Hunsur, which would have been logistically impossible if he was at Nagarahole. His mother proudly conducts visitors around her vegetable garden, something that would not have been possible inside the forest.

Magsaysay awardee ''water-man'' from Rajasthan Mr Rajinder Singh of Tarun Bharath Sangh a champion of human rights and rural development, visited the rehabilitation site and endorsed the concept saying that this was a unique project which was also being well executed. LIFT and Wildlife First are effectively countering negative campaigns about the programme and liasoning with other Government agencies to provide social security measures for the rehabilitated tribals. They have even supported tribal students to continue education.

The tribal resettlement programme of Nagapura has opened a new mode that voluntary resettlement delivers the twin benefits of social justice as well as consolidating prime wildlife habitat, which is a win-win situation.During one of my recent visits to the Nagarahole National Park, I saw a herd of gaurs that are very shy of humans, right next to the old Nagarahole haadi where just two years ago twenty-two tribal families dwelled. The animals were back and nature had shown signs of recovery. I was convinced that wildlife would show up again if human interference was minimal.