Government’s “Pet” Tigers: Politics of Knowledge & Translation in Post-Colonial Wildlife Conservation Practices in Central India

Keywords: community engagement; environmentality; rewilding, indigenous knowledge; ICDPs; politics of knowledge; Panna landscape
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Integrated conservation programs aim for win-win solutions for biodiversity conservation and human well-being but fail to recognize gaps in indigenous groups’ understanding of neoliberal conservation solutions like ecotourism in protected areas. One such case is Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR) in India, where indigenous groups look at successfully reintroduced tigers (Panthera tigris tigris), having radio collars for their movement, as the government’s “pet” tigers. They imagine these new tigers working for the government and doing surveillance on their forest access. Ironically, PTR celebrates human-wildlife coexistence through slogans like “Jan samarthan se bagh sanrakshan (tiger conservation with public support),” but relocated 14 villages in the last 20 years. Panna is a drought-prone area, having extreme poverty and high forest dependencies. Issues like human-wildlife conflict, unclear forest-village boundaries, restrictions to forest access, etc. have negatively impacted people’s relationship with wildlife and have created mistrust in community engagement activities. Moreover, people’s views on wildlife have changed from “Humare janwar (our wildlife)" to “Unke janwar (their wildlife)." This paper examines if wildlife tolerance is by chance or if wildlife tolerance is the only way of negotiation. I use mixed methods and ethnography to see how forms of environmental knowledge translate into hostility when it does not match the socioeconomic and cultural realities of different social groups. I situate this research with Foucault's concept of governmentality and explore possibilities of practices of care in conservation projects in India. This study proposes indigenous stewardship as promoting sustainable cohabitation with the “new” tiger population in the Panna landscape.