Making Conservation Work

Wildlife today is competing with some of India’s most underprivileged people for survival. This apart, commercial and industrial pressures from far outside park boundaries reverberate within these fragile ecological oases, making them vulnerable in a way they never have been before. Reconciling the question of preserving what little wildlife remains with the needs of humans has never seemed as tangles. ‘Fortress conservation’, based solely on strict nature protection, is one response to these pressures, a response under attack. Recent tiger crises and tribal land rights debates have highlighted the opposition of strict preservationists to advocates of people’s rights. Meanwhile, fresh work in sociology and biology, and innovative interventions, show new ways forward that do not neatly fit existing paradigms. This book moves from generalities to specific, from ideal models to working approaches, that seek to secure India’s biodiversity by fashioning practical responses based on new, often unexpected, partnerships. A lucid Introduction outlines the conservation situation in India; the essays that follow illustrate various facets of it. Each essay is deeply grounded in the field -the Author explore whether and how far animal and human needs can be reconciled. Making Conservation Work articulates a new, urgent discourse on conservation. It is a volume that looks ahead with cautious hope. For also who want to understand the conservation debate today, this is an indispensable book.