We, as a group of individuals, organizations, and representatives of forest-dwelling communities, have released a joint statement expressing grave concerns about the letter issued by the Addl. DGF (Project Tiger) and Member Secretary (NTCA) on June 19, 2024.

This letter asks states to prioritize the relocation of villages from Core/Critical Tiger Habitats, which contradicts the rights of Adivasi and other traditional forest dwellers under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006; violates the procedure to be followed before considering relocation from Tiger Reserves under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972; and disregards international obligations to uphold human rights while pursuing conservation goals under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Additionally, the letter has not been made public and is not available on the NTCA website, raising serious questions about the NTCA’s accountability and transparency. 

The statement calls for the immediate withdrawal of the letter, an independent review of past relocations and their social and ecological impacts, and a more inclusive, rights-based approach to tiger conservation through the implementation of the FRA and the recognition of community-led conservation

To read the full statement click here.

Click here to read the entire article.

A longer piece on this has been published at:

Partap C Aggarwal
Born Jaranwala in Undivided India on May 20th 1931.
Died peacefully in his sleep September on 28th 2024

The trauma of losing his mother followed by the loss of his ancestral home through partition, marked Partap’s early life and started him on a journey that was remarkable and defied convention.

Inspired by Gandhi and driven by the wish to make a difference in a newly independant country, he joined first, Sewagram and then Friends Rural Center in Central India afte graduating from college. After a few years of hands on “rural development” work, the need to learn more took him to Cornell Universty in upstate New York where he completed a PhD in Social Anthropolgy. With this degree in hand he joined Colgate University as faculty and in five years had become a professor of Anthropology. By now married with three young children, family pictures of that time (early 1970s) depict an American family, doing typically American things having achieved the American dream.

However, he soon began to see the fault lines of the American/ industrial way of life, it’s social injustices and it’s lack of ecological sustainability. And as be became increasingly critical, he decided to leave it all behind and return to India. It was a big leap of faith, to give up the security of a well paying job and there was a fair amount of resistance from the rest of the family. Many people felt he was mad. Back in India he wrote 4 books and numerous articles about caste and other inequalities in India. And then one day he decided he had had enough of academia, he wanted to work with his hands instead of the pen.

So he came back to the Friends Rural center this time as the coordinator and the One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka fell into his hands. The central idea of the book was that Nature knows best and a lot of human endevour lead to creating more problems than solutions. Fukuoka’s way became Partaps way and the under his guidance the center focussed on no till farming. Or creating a forest on the farm.
Given his training in Social Anthropolgy it also became clear to him that social justice and ecological justice go hand in hand. Partap and his team at FRC became pioneers in natural farming and inspired many people across the country to start their own similar experiments. From central India he moved close to Bangalore in the south, and together with a group of like minded people started Navadarshanam on a patch of overgrazed, barren land. Navdarshnam today is a community, “experimenting with alternatives to the modern way of living and thinking seeking both ecological balance and inner peace”

People who met Partap remember telling them “look the jungle is coming back” with a glint in his
eyes. Today this forest is visited by wild elephants, bison and deer. And according to his wishes,
we laid him to rest at his favourite spot in this forest.

To watch the entire seminar please click here.

To read the full statement click here.

To read the full statement click here.

Kalpavriksh on behalf of the National Working Group on Community Conserved Areas in India and in collaboration with Centre for Environment and Development at ATREE, organised a national workshop of members and honorary members of ICCA Consortium and others working on issues related to Community Conserved Areas (CCAs) in India. The workshop was held from 6^th to 8^th December 2023 at Fireflies Intercultural Centre, Bengaluru. Over 60 participants from diverse backgrounds, including representatives from adivasi and non-adivasi local communities, community-based, state and national level civil society organizations, academic institutions and independent researchers associated with CCAs across India attended the workshop.

In December 2022, CoP 15 of the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) yet again recognised the pivotal role of Indigenous peoples and local communities in biodiversity conservation and climate action. Global conservation targets now emphasise their recognition and inclusion. However, at the national level, CCAs face challenges as they remain largely unrecognised, with exclusive conservation policies posing significant threats and challenges. Therefore, the workshop aimed to unite participants from the entire nation, fostering shared learning and collaboration to enhance the management and conservation of
CCAs.

The workshop started with a brief participant introduction, and an introductory session on ICCA Consortium and CCAs in India. The workshop included, discussion sessions on conservation and management planning in CCAs, discussing challenges and opportunities, and addressing inclusion
concerns such as gender, youth, caste, and class within territories of life. Additionally, learning sessions covered current legal frameworks, financial mechanisms available for CCAs including Carbon Markets, and the politics of research and documentation for CCAs. Another session focused on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, its implications for CCAs in India, and strategies for national implementation. The workshop concluded with a session on building strategy, advocacy, and action plans as part of the National-level Working Group to defend, strengthen, and support CCAs.

The three days of deliberations also led to drafting of a Statement on perspective of adivasis/ tribal/ indigenous peoples and other traditional local communities from CCAs – territories of life, in India. The participants urged all the relevant actors to support and follow the statement. In particular, the Statement urges the government of India, as a party to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to take into account the concerns and recommendations in the Statement while drafting the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) and other strategies towards implementing Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, in India. The Statement emphasised that the Tribal and local communities have traditionally protected biodiversity and played vital roles in climate change mitigation through nature-based solutions. Despite some recognition by domestic policies, these communities face significant structural, administrative, and legal hurdles in asserting their governance rights over ancestral lands. Their lands and resources are often diverted for development projects without consent, leading to displacement and cultural disruption. The implementation of policies like the Forest Rights Act (2006) and the Biological Diversity Act (2002) has been slow, inadequate, and failed to effectively empower the adivasis/tribal/indigenous peoples and other traditional local communities. The Statement calls for meaningful consultation with adivasis/tribal/indigenous peoples and other traditional local communities recognition of their customary boundaries, and respect for their free, prior, and informed consent for any activities and projects on their customary lands.

Latest People in Conservation: Biodiversity Conservation and Livelihood Security Newsletter is out!

To read the entire newsletter please click here.