Conservation why? A political ecology investigation of wildlife laws in India

This study was the basis of an academic paper, which can be downloaded here. This paper focused on the connection between science and conservation policy in the case study of Karera.

In 2022, the three decade-old Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary in Karera in central India was de-notified by the national government following years of protests from local residents, who had lost their customary land rights when the sanctuary was declared. Karera is not an isolated case; since colonial times, India has a history of undermining the rights of marginalized communities in the name of protecting nature. The need to exclude humans to protect nature stems from a philosophy of human–nature dualism, which persists today in the legal and bureaucratic system. In the 1970s, a global frenzy around wildlife conservation coincided with the extreme authoritarianism of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's second term in government, leading to the passing of the Indian Wild Life Protection Act (IWLPA) in 1972. Its narrow vision permitted little acknowledgement of community rights, enabling repressive conservation policies with disastrous consequences for humans and wildlife, of which Karera is just one example.

This ongoing project analyzes the case study of Karera in the Indian political ecology context from the 1970s to the present day using qualitative methods such as archival research, secondary research, and original interviews. A major aim of the project is to disseminate the findings to a general readership, not just an academic audience, to stimulate democratic debate on the question, do we need to rethink why we do conservation?