Relocation from protected areas as a violent process in the recent history of biodiversity conservation in India

Abstract

In the last two decades conflicts due to biodiversity conservation projects have been rising all over the world. This is due to the interest at the global level towards environmental protection, which is often implemented at the expense of communities living within and around important biodiversity spots. The study analyses the violent process of relocation and displacement from the protected areas of India with the purpose of documenting the illegal relocation of indigenous communities and forest dwellers from the protected forest areas. It examines the specific laws and regulations that legalize their relocation from their ancestral land in contravention of legal recognition of the community’s forest rights under the Forest Rights Act (FRA). The article concludes how these conflicts are the results of no recognition of tenure rights, and mirrors the contradictions embedded in the environmental protection policies not only in India but at the global level as well.