Biological Conservation 286 (2023) 110264
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Biological Conservation
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biocon
The slow violence of fortress conservation creates conditions for socially
unjust ‘voluntary’ relocation
Sonam Mahalwal *, Asmita Kabra
School of Human Ecology, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University, Delhi 110006, India
A R T I C L E I N F O
A B S T R A C T
Keywords:
Forest dependence
Voluntary relocation
Social justice
Adivasi
Cheetah
India
Kuno national park
The creation of inviolate Protected Areas for the conservation of charismatic carnivores displaces forest-dwelling
communities and reduces their access to vital forest-based livelihood resources like timber, wild food, com­
mercial gums-resins, fuel, and fodder for livestock. We illustrate how exclusionary projects to conserve the
Asiatic Lion and the African cheetah in Kuno National Park have adversely affected forest-based livelihoods and
the indigenous tree tenure system of the Sahariya, a particularly vulnerable indigenous group in central India.
This article traces the social justice implications of long-term restrictions on forest access and how these shape
people's response to government attempts to relocate them. The empirical analysis is drawn on long-term live­
lihood data from two phases of household surveys conducted in 2005 and 2017. In addition, qualitative field­
work (conducted in 2017 and 2023) and geospatial analysis were used to analyse the spatial dynamics of the
increasingly restrictive forest access. The study highlights that quantity collected of chir (the gum-resin of the
salai or Boswellia serrata tree) declined by 46 % during the study period. Systematic state restrictions on col­
lecting non-timber forest produce (NTFP) unleashed a process of ‘slow violence’ on the Sahariya, steadily eroding
their ability to survive in the forest. This has forced the Sahariya of village Bagcha to acquiesce to ‘voluntary’
relocation. Socially just biodiversity conservation policy should critically examine the inherently political pro­
cesses underlying ‘voluntary’ relocation and strive to look for more inclusive coexistence alternatives.
1. Introduction
relocation gradually became embedded in national legislations like the
Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of
Forest Rights) Act, commonly known as FRA 2006 (Kashwan, 2017). The
preamble to the FRA2 underscores the importance of social justice in
conservation, stating that “the forest rights on ancestral lands and their
habitat were not adequately recognised in the consolidation of State
forests during the colonial period as well as in independent India
resulting in historical injustice to the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes
and other traditional forest dwellers who are integral to the very sur­
vival and sustainability of the forest ecosystem”. It links the country's
dominant model of conservation with loss of forest access and forced
eviction of forest dwellers, stating that “it has become necessary to
address the long standing insecurity of tenurial and access rights of
forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers
including those who were forced to relocate their dwelling due to State
development interventions.”
Fortress conservation, or the creation of inviolate1 protected areas,
has been the globally preferred strategy for the conservation of charis­
matic mega-carnivores across the world, including India. Since the
inception of Project Tiger fifty years ago, the notional separation of
humans and nature has taken the form of exclusionary protected areas
(Kabra, 2019). During 1972–2006, >2904 families were forcibly dis­
placed from 80 villages across 13 Tiger Reserves in India. Most relocated
families faced a decline in living standards and rise in vulnerability
(Kabra and Das, 2022). Outrage against the injustice of forced
displacement and inadequate resettlement, mainly in the context of
large infrastructure projects, created a gradual policy shift towards
stronger legal safeguards in India (Wahi, 2013). In conservation policymaking too, progressive ideas of social justice, participatory conserva­
tion, indigenous rights, free prior informed consent, and voluntary
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: smahalwal.16@stu.aud.ac.in (S. Mahalwal), asmita@aud.ac.in (A. Kabra).
1
“PAs that do not have human settlements are referred to as inviolate. Only scientific research and wildlife tourism under regulation is allowed in such PAs and
local people dependent on the natural resource base are excluded” (Kabra and Das, 2022).
2
https://tribal.nic.in/FRA.aspx
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110264
Received 18 April 2023; Received in revised form 17 August 2023; Accepted 28 August 2023
0006-3207/© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
S. Mahalwal and A. Kabra
Biological Conservation 286 (2023) 110264
Paradoxically, however, mainstream conservation in India has not
relied on the FRA 2006 to equitably compensate for the loss of rights of
Adivasi3 forest dwellers in Tiger Reserves. Instead, India's conserva­
tionist state has created a parallel policy regime administered by the
National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), created through the
Wild Life Protection (Amendment) Act 2006. This law introduced a
provision for voluntary relocation from Tiger Reserves, whereby each
household that agrees to move out of the forest will receive a one-time
compensation worth INR 1 million4 (approximately USD 12,219). Dur­
ing 2006–19, the government relocated 14,441 families from 173 vil­
lages situated inside Tiger Reserves under this scheme. At least 42,398
families continue to reside in designated ‘critical tiger habitats’ and are
likely to be targeted for relocation under the same scheme in the coming
years (Kabra and Das, 2022).
The voluntary relocation scheme of the NTCA has also been used to
relocate people from protected areas for conservation projects pertain­
ing to other mega-carnivores like lions and cheetahs. This article high­
lights the social justice implications of long-term restrictions on forest
access in Bagcha, an Adivasi village in district Sheopur, Madhya Pradesh
in central India. It traces the effects of these restrictions on collection of
gum-resin from the Salai tree, a vital component of the livelihood basket
for the Sahariya Adivasi community living in this village. In order to
secure the Kuno National Park (KNP) for conservation of African chee­
tahs translocated from Namibia and South Africa, the state forest
department has relocated village Bagcha under the NTCA scheme.
The first batch of 8 cheetahs were released in KNP in September
2022, and a second batch of 12 in March 2023. However, much before
the arrival of cheetahs, the people of Bagcha began losing access to the
Kuno forests at least two decades ago. This protected area was selected
in 1995 as the site for reintroduction of the pride of Asiatic Lions from its
only home in the Gir forest of Gujarat. With the initiation of the Lion
Reintroduction Project by the federal government in collaboration with
the state of Madhya Pradesh, several villages (including Bagcha) situ­
ated adjacent to the Kuno sanctuary5 began facing stringent restrictions
in accessing the forest for gum-resin collection.
This article traces changes in forest-based income and overall income
of Adivasi households in Bagcha. It aims to examine the impact of
conservation policies on forest access of the Adivasi, with special
reference to their indigenous tree tenure system of governing forest
tracts with a predominance of salai trees. Using livelihood data from
close-ended household surveys conducted in 2004–05 and 2016–17, and
qualitative and ethnographic data from in-depth interviews, it explores
trajectories of change in household income and livelihood strategies. It
also examines how the Asiatic Lion Reintroduction project (currently in
abeyance) and the initiation of the cheetah project has affected the
quantum of chir collection by the Sahariya of Bagcha and their income
from this vital NTFP. It then explores how these long-term changes in
chir-based livelihoods have shaped the attitude of the people of Bagcha
towards relocation from the KNP.
The article is organized as follows: Section 2 highlights the impor­
tance of forests and NTFP in rural livelihoods in the global South. It then
summarizes the theoretical framework of forest access and slow violence
using a political ecology approach. Section 3 describes the study area,
research context and methodology. Section 4 outlines the changing
regime of NTFP governance and mega-carnivore conservation in post­
colonial India and Madhya Pradesh. Section 5 presents our key findings
and analysis. Finally, Section 6 discusses broad concerns about the
narrative of voluntary relocation and its disservice to the idea of social
justice in conservation.
2. Forest dependence and forest access
2.1. Role of NTFP in rural livelihoods
Forests cover nearly 31 % of the global land area and support onethird of the world's population who are dependent on forest resources
(FAO and UNEP, 2020). Forests play a critical social, economic, and
cultural role in the lives of poor population across the world. Forest
dependent people have been defined variously as those wholly deriving
their sustenance from the forest, or groups that reside on forest land, or
those engaged in shifting cultivation by clearing forests (Byron and
Arnold, 1999).
Local use of forests includes harvesting of timber but also a range of
other products, which are broadly clubbed under the rubric of NTFP.
The debate on the definition of NTFP looks at aspects like items being
harvested, scale of harvest, nature of use, nature of forest from which
extraction is carried out etc. (Shackleton et al., 2011). NTFPs include
medicinal herbs, wild fruits, honey, gums, and resins (Byron and Arnold,
1999; Sunderlin et al., 2005). NTFP intrigued researchers as a probable
solution to environmental problems and simultaneously as a key to
addressing poverty. As global concerns about deforestation, degradation
and species extinction grew, it simultaneously became clear that pockets
of rural poverty overlapped significantly with forested landscapes. The
recent State of the World's Forests Report by the FAO suggests that 40 %
of those classified as extreme rural poor worldwide live in forest areas
(FAO, 2018).
Globally, dependence on forests and NTFP is particularly high among
socially marginal groups, especially rural indigenous people. According
to the World Bank, over 60 million indigenous and tribal people derive
their income from forests in cash or kind, especially in the Global South
(World Bank, 2004). In India, 27 % of the total population depends on
forests, of which a majority belong to Adivasi groups. Government of
India statistics estimate that on an average, around 30 % of the annual
income of forest dwellers comes from NTFPs (Planning Commission on
F&NRM, 2011).
However, there are strong regional variations within India in the
extent of forest dependence. The central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh
has the largest area under forest cover (77,414 sq. km), accounting for
nearly 11 % of India's forest cover (Forest Survey of India, 2021).
Madhya Pradesh also has the highest share of India's Adivasi population
(Census of India, 2011). In addition to commercially well-known timber
species like teak, the forests of Madhya Pradesh are endowed with a
range of NTFPs, which are a vital source of food, medicine and income
for the local communities (Government of Madhya Pradesh, 2013). A
recent study estimated that 30 % of the household earnings of the
poorest households in Madhya Pradesh are derived from forests (Dam­
ania et al., 2018).
The important NTFP species of Madhya Pradesh and the central In­
dian Adivasi region include tendu leaves (Diospyros melanoxylon), seeds
of sal (Shorea robusta) and chironji (Buchanania lanzan), roots of satawar
(Asparagus racemosus), bark and fruit of harra (Terminalia chebula), and
the flowers and seeds of mahua (Madhuca indica) (MPSBB, 2023). In
addition, there are various gum and resin species like karaya (Sterculia
urens), dhawara (Anogeissus latifolia), babul (Acacia nilotica), salai
(Boswellia serrata), and guggul (Commiphora wightii). Extraction and sale
of gums and resins play a unique role in Adivasi livelihoods in Madhya
Pradesh. Nearly one-third of the total gum and resin production in the
country comes from Madhya Pradesh, and a large part of this gets
exported (Bhatnagar et al., 2014).
3
The term Adivasi (literally ‘original dwellers’) refers to the Scheduled Tribes
listed under Article 342 of the Constitution of India (https://dopt.gov.
in/sites/default/files/ch-11.pdf).
4
In April 2021, the amount of one-time compensation was increased to INR
1.5 million (USD 18,327).
5
The protection status of this PA was upgraded from a wildlife sanctuary to a
national park in 2018.
2.2. Forest access and slow violence
Sustained and legitimate access to forests for the local communities
2
S. Mahalwal and A. Kabra
Biological Conservation 286 (2023) 110264
is a prerequisite to realising the economic benefits of trade in NTFPs.
This depends not just on the laws and policies that govern forest man­
agement, but also political actions through which these laws are used or
bypassed by different social groups in the rural society. To understand
the everyday realities of forest resource use by local communities, po­
litical ecologists combine the study of forest governance regimes with
actual practices of forest access by local communities. Access is defined
as ‘the ability to derive benefits from something’, which can be obtained
not just by virtue of ownership of property, but through various other
power-laden ‘mechanisms of access’ (Ribot, 1998; Ribot and Peluso,
2003). Unlike property, which is defined as a ‘bundle of rights’, access is
understood as a ‘bundle of powers’, signalling “a wider range of social
relationships that constrain or enable benefits from resource use than
property relations alone” (Ribot and Peluso, 2003, p. 154).
The advantage of focusing on access is that it enables a grounded
analysis of how different actors evolve strategies to benefit from re­
sources in the face of changing socio-economic, legal and political cir­
cumstances. Access can be obtained by legal (rights-based) or illicit
(power-based) means, depending on the web of relations between those
who control access and those who seek to obtain/retain it. Access to
forest resources can be acquired/safeguarded by laws that empower
people to claim rights, but also by making socially sanctioned claims on
someone who has the authority to maintain the resource. Ultimately, the
changing contours of resource access by local communities is shaped by
the power-laden processes by which they negotiate with state and nonstate actors (Ribot and Peluso, 2003).
Loss of access can either be episodic (sudden policy changes or forced
eviction) or emerge from long drawn systematic processes of ‘soft
eviction’ (Weldemichel, 2021). Such loss of access does not result in an
instant event and is therefore captured under the popular discourse of
violence (Nixon, 2011). Nixon elucidates this ‘slow-violence’ as “a
violence that occurs gradually and out of sight, a violence of delayed
destruction that is dispersed across time and space, an attritional
violence that is typically not viewed as violence at all” (Nixon, 2011, p.
2).
Apparently benign forms of violence can take the form of recurrent
events that propel the community towards marginalization and impov­
erishment, by restricting a range of traditional activities (Weldemichel,
2021). Slow violence is a key strategy to relocate people from Tiger
Reserves in India. Communities are persuaded to acquiesce to the relo­
cation by offering incentives to move out and deploying disincentivizing
tactics for those who remain in the forest (Kabra and Das, 2022).
People cope with slow violence by devising everyday strategies
which involve shifting harvesting practices, negotiating use rights with
lower forest bureaucracy and other local users, and submitting to brib­
ery demands of lower forest bureaucracy (Baviskar, 1995; Kashwan,
2017). In addition, every few years villagers are threatened with
impending relocation and advised not to invest in agriculture. Such
challenges and uncertainties adversely impact the community's wellbeing (Kabra and Mahalwal, 2018).
In this article, we used these insights to understand the macro-level
factors that shaped the changing forest governance regime for extraction
of gum (known locally as chir) from the salai tree in the Kuno forests in
the postcolonial period. We show how their traditional access to salai
trees declined significantly with as the forest department transitioned
from a regime of ‘territoriality for extraction’ towards ‘territoriality for
conservation’ (Kabra et al., 2023). We then provide a grounded analysis
of how the people of Bagcha adjusted to this changing regime by pro­
cesses like spatial diversification of chir collection sites, addition of new
livelihoods to their portfolio, and eventually agreement to so called
voluntary relocation to a new site outside the KNP.
villages and hamlets in the forests of Kuno, livelihoods have historically
consisted of dryland farming, livestock herding, forest produce collec­
tion and wage work, with occasional shopkeeping and other trade ac­
tivities forming other secondary sources of income (Kabra, 2003, 2009).
Of the variety of non-timber forest products (NTFP) they collect for sale,
chir gum-resin of salai is one of the most valuable. The Kuno forests are
abundant in the salai (Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, 2020). The
Sahariya have been tapping chir for generations. Prior to the national­
isation of the species in 1969, the community used to sell chir to traders
who visited villages the region from Delhi and Shivpuri.
Large stretches of Boswellia forests are found in the north-western
parts of Madhya Pradesh, especially in the forests of the Chambal Di­
vision (Champion and Seth, 2005). Boswellia serrata belongs to genus
Boswellia, that has >20 species. It is a medium-to-large deciduous tree
with height up to 18 m and a girth size up to 2.4 m (Sunnichan et al.,
2005). It produces a greenish-yellow gum known variously as Indianolibanum, Indian frankincense, chir, salai or guggul. The gum is
extracted by making an incision on the bark of the tree, which acts as an
outlet for the resinous gum. When sold commercially, the final product
is graded based on its colour and impurities (Bhatnagar, 2014; Prasad
and Nath, 2016). Chir is extracted widely in central India due to its
commercial value. There is no documented local use of chir by the
Sahariya of Kuno, and our research also confirmed this. All the collected
chir is traded for commercial use. Chir gives a pleasant fragrance, and is
thus used for making incense. It is also used in paints as turpentine and is
well-known in Indian systems of medicine for its pain-relieving prop­
erties (Murthy et al., 2016; Siddiqui, 2011; Sunnichan et al., 2005).
In the Kuno landscape, the customary right of chir harvesting rests
with the Sahariya community, who have been extracting this gum-resin
for generations (Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, 2020). They
possess a deep-rooted, situated traditional knowledge of the species
(Mahalwal and Kabra, 2023), and have a well-functioning sustainable
indigenous tree tenure system (ITTS) for managing the Salai forests
(Kabra et al., 2023).
This study village, Bagcha, is situated in the South Sironi forest range
of the Kuno wildlife division (25,046′57.20”N, 77005′59.45″E), Bagcha
is surrounded by forests of Kuno Wildlife Division on all sides (Fig. 1).
Prior to the notification of KNP, Bagcha laid on the western pe­
riphery of KWS. After the notification of the KNP in 2018, the forest
enclosure was expanded, and Bagcha became a part of the National Park
(Fig. 2).
As shown in Table 1, Bagcha has an Adivasi population belonging to
two ethnic groups, the Sahariya and the Bhil. The Sahariya6 are pri­
marily dependent on the surrounding forests for their subsistence. The
village's population nearly doubled between the 2001 and 2011, due to
natural factors as well as influx of the Bhils from neighbouring villages
and from a district Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh. The Bhil migrants
initially came as sharecroppers and eventually settled in Bagcha.
Given its remote location and poor connectivity with the district
headquarters at Sheopur, infrastructure in Bagcha is sparse and of poor
quality. Access to government services like health, education and piped
drinking water supply are almost non-existent. The only primary school
in the village is mostly dysfunctional, according to the local people. If
the only working hand pump7 in the village breaks down, they walk
miles to obtain drinking water from the valley of Aam-Kho,8 which re­
tains some rainwater from the surrounding hills. The Sahariya of Bagcha
rely heavily on the surrounding forest for their daily food, construction,
fuel, and other material needs, and importantly, for earning cash
6
The Sahariya are designated by the Government of India as one of the 75
particularly vulnerable tribal groups of India (https://tribal.nic.in/downloads
/Statistics/ListofPVTGs191212.pdf)
7
There are two handpumps in the village. One of them has been dysfunc­
tional for more than a year.
8
This is a local term for valley, known for mango trees.
3. Research context, study area, and methods
The study is based in the village Bagcha, in Sheopur district of
Madhya Pradesh in central India. For the Sahariya who live in small
3
S. Mahalwal and A. Kabra
Biological Conservation 286 (2023) 110264
Fig. 1. Map of India showing location of Madhya Pradesh and Sheopur district (left). Location of Bagcha in South Sironi range of Kuno Wildlife Division in Sheopur
district (right).
Fig. 2. Map showing the location of Bagcha (Bankacha) before notification of KNP (left). Bagcha inside the boundary of KNP after 2018 (Right). Map on the left is
sourced from Johnsingh et al. (2007).
through the sale of NTFPs. The market for NTFP is organized along lines
of social and caste differences; while trade and marketing are dominated
by the so-called business communities, the task of primary harvesting of
NTFPs is undertaken by the Sahariya.
The research used a mixed-method approach, with a combination of
quantitative, qualitative, and geo-spatial analysis. The quantitative data
for this research was derived from two rounds of household surveys
which estimated household income from various livelihood sources for
the periods 2003–04 and 2016–17. The 2003–04 data set is obtained
from the second author's doctoral research.9 Data collection took place
in May–August 2005, and covered all available and willing households
of the village. The second round of data collection was conducted by the
9
Kabra (2008). The Impact of Displacement on Poverty and Livelihood Security:
The Case of Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary, Madhya Pradesh, India. JNU.
4
S. Mahalwal and A. Kabra
Biological Conservation 286 (2023) 110264
Various state government websites were used to gather information on
NTFP regulations. These regulations are analysed in the following sec­
tion to show how the focus of forest governance in India and Kuno
shifted from extraction to conservation.
Table 1
Demographic changes in Bagcha between 2001 and 2011. The data is derived
from Census of India, except the numbers of Sahariya and Bhil, which are a part
of author's fieldwork.
Particulars
2001 Census
2011 Census
Change in population (in %)
Population
Scheduled Caste
Scheduled Tribe
Total No. of Houses
Sahariya*
Bhil*
309
0
309
50
45
5
556
0
538
128
100–110
15–20
80
0
74
156
133
250
4. From extraction to conservation: Changing NTFP governance
regimes in KNP
The early decades of post-independent India were marked by
extension of centralised control over not just timber but several NTFP
species. The Madhya Pradesh Forest Produce (Regulation of Trade) Act,
196913 notified several timbers and non-timber species as ‘specified
forest produce’ of the State. Apart from 13 species of timber, the list of
specified produce included katha from khair trees (Senegalia catechu),
lac in all forms, flowers of mahua (Madhuca longifolia) and a variety of
gums from trees like kullu (Sterculia urens), dhawara (Anogeissus lat­
ifolia), khair (Senegalia catechu), babool (Acacia nilotica), sal (Shorea
robusta) and salai (Boswellia serrata). This extended the state's territorial
control over forest products, such that extraction, transportation, pro­
cessing, and sale took place via state-appointed agents.
The regime of ‘territoriality for extraction’ itself underwent various
stages from the colonial era to the 1970s in Madhya Pradesh (Kabra
et al., 2023). The centralisation and state control over trade in NTFPs
started being relaxed with the advent of neoliberal policies in India. In
Madhya Pradesh, a range of political and electoral calculations resulted
in the ‘Bhopal Declaration’ of 2003 – a detailed manifesto of decen­
tralized governance adopted by the state government for the welfare of
the state's most marginalised communities. In 2003, all gum species
except kullu (Sterculia urens) were removed from the list of specified
produce in Madhya Pradesh (Véron and Fehr, 2011). This marked the
beginning of free trade in chir gum harvested from salai, and in grade-2
gums like dhaora (Anogeissus latifolia), khair (Senegalia catechu), and
babul (Senegalia senegal) (MPSMFPF, 2022). The requirement of
mandatory transit permit for transportation of these products was also
abolished around the same time (Bhattacharya et al., 2008). The stated
objective of this retreat of the State was to improve the economic status
of Adivasi primary harvesters, resonating the idea that NTFP trade could
provide avenues for poverty alleviation among forest-dependent Adivasi
communities. For instance, after deregulation the price of chir gum-resin
witnessed a steep rise, especially after 2010 (Bhatnagar et al., 2014).
Removal of restrictions on trade and movement of NTFPs was ex­
pected to allow Adivasi harvesters to get higher income from sale of
NTFPs, as well as reduce interference and tyranny of the lower forest
bureaucracy in their day-to-day lives and livelihoods. However, the
actual impact of these deregulation measures was somewhat limited.
Firstly, even though the state reduced the number of items in the spec­
ified list, it retained control over timber trade as well as the most
important commercial NTFP species like tendu leaves, kullu gum and sal
seeds. Furthermore, state funding of forest protection continued un­
abated, and no formal handing over of territorial control to private
commercial actors ever took place (Véron and Fehr, 2011).
With the enactment of the Wildlife Protection Act (WLPA) in 1972,
re-regulation of India's forests took a conservationist turn. Conservation
of charismatic endangered species like the tiger was predicated on a
model of ‘fortress conservation’ (Brockington, 2002). The WLPA con­
tained provisions for creation of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries,
imagined as undisturbed habitats with limited human activity permis­
sible (Chundawat, 2018). Forests designated as Tiger Reserves became
highly exclusionary spaces, created through a series of evictions and
forced land acquisitions, as mentioned in Section 1. The moral legiti­
macy for these policies came from the Euro-centric model of conserva­
tion, based on a notional separation of ‘nature’ from ‘culture’
(Neumann, 2002). India's model for the conservation of critically
Table 2
Stages of Data Collection and respective numbers of household surveys, in­
terviews and FGDs.
Year
Household
survey
Interviews
FGD
Objectives
2004
75
–
–
2017
54
4
2
2023
–
4
2
Household level data on livelihood
sources and income from each
activity.
• Collect household level income
data
• Qualitative tools to understand
broad changes in livelihoods
between 2004 and 2016
• Understand the on ground impact
of the change in legal status of the
forest from KWS to KNP
• Emerging concerns related to
forest access and impending
relocation.
lead author in 2017. In both rounds, information about livelihoods and
annual household income for the previous agricultural year was
collected, consisting of the monsoon, winter, and summer seasons. The
2003–04 survey covered 75 households, which was nearly 95 % of the
total reported population of the village (Kabra, 2008). The survey in
2016–17 aimed to follow up on all the households of the previous study
as well as the new Sahariya households.10 Eventually, it succeeded in
covering a total of 54 Sahariya households.11 To compare the annual
household income for the two years, the data was adjusted for inflation
using the consumer price index (details provided in Annexure A.1.).
The lead author has been associated with this region as a researcher
and field worker through two local NGOs since 2011. She first visited
Bagcha in 2017, and continued to stay in touch with the residents.
Bagcha was one of the study sites in the doctoral research of the coauthor. In addition to the quantitative survey, interviews (n = 4 in
2016–17, n = 4 in 2023) and FGDs (n = 2 in 2016–17, n = 2 in 2023),
involving both men and women, were used to collect qualitative infor­
mation (Table 2). The respondents included elders of the village as well
as the young members of the community. The aim was to understand
changes in the forest governance and access regimes, and the coping
strategies of the local people in response to gradual closing of the salai
forests.
Further, geo-spatial tools were used to extract spatial information
from the Management Plan of the Kuno Wildlife Division for the period
2011–2020 and the gazette notification of Kuno National Park Ecosensitive Zone.12 This spatial information was used to create maps
showing the forest boundaries and spatial distribution of salai forests.
10
The Bhil households were excluded because they reported no dependence
on chir collection in both study periods.
11
Several households were unavailable during the 2017 data collection,
which took place during February and April. This is peak season for mustard
harvesting, followed by seasonal migration to the wheat cultivating sub­
divisions of Sheopur district.
12
Gazette notification no. CG-DL-E-05052022-235,554, dated 04 May 2022
13
5
The M.P. Van Upaj (Vyapar Viniyaman) Adhiniyam 1969
S. Mahalwal and A. Kabra
Biological Conservation 286 (2023) 110264
endangered tigers drew heavily on the same scientific discourses. All
local uses like grazing, fuel wood gathering, and NTFP collection were
viewed as ‘human disturbances’ that interfered with the ability of
charismatic carnivores like tigers to survive and breed successfully
(Karanth, 2007; Ranganathan et al., 2008).
Since 2006, forced eviction of people from protected areas has given
way to voluntary relocation, through the eponymously named scheme of
the NTCA. Although couched as volition, close scrutiny of such
displacement projects uncovers long-term political processes of
restricting access which drive households and communities towards
consent (Kabra and Das, 2022). Political ecologists have shown that
volition can be assembled not just through spectacular moments of
violence, but also the ‘slow violence’ that results from sustained denial
of resource access. This can prevent forest-dwelling communities from
fulfilling basic human needs and de-legitimise their everyday subsis­
tence activities. An example from the Limpopo National Park in
Mozambique shows that consent was generated by the state using pre­
cisely such mechanisms.
“As they await relocation, the basic human security of residents has
become deeply undermined by decreased access to environmental re­
sources, an erosion of basic services, increased human-wildlife conflict,
and the criminalization of their livelihoods. Intensification of poverty
and state disenfranchisement have followed” (Witter and Satterfield,
2019).
The next section examines the case of chir gum extraction in Bagcha,
to explore whether similar strategies of slow violence underlie the
apparent willingness of the Sahariya community to accept the NTCA's
voluntary resettlement package.
(honey) and wild berries in winters. However, collection of these
products is inadequate for meeting the household consumption needs.
Any illness in the family, absence of male members, or inaccessibility of
forest during rain makes the households vulnerable to food insecurity.
Moreover, the staple cereal, i.e. wheat, is usually bought from the
market together with items like cooking oil and rice. In such a scenario,
chir being the highest contributor to household NTFP and overall in­
come (Table 4), is critical for survival and food security of the Sahariya.
Fig. 4 shows the top four income-generating NTFPs for 2003–04 and
2016–17. In both survey years, income generated by the sale of chir
easily outweighs the cumulative income from the other three NTFPs. In
addition, the imperative role of chir in the Sahariya community is
evident from the share of its contribution in household income (Table 4).
The proposed displacement from KNP and resettlement in a location of
their choice must be viewed in light of this overall grim picture of
poverty and intense vulnerability.
During the interviews, all our respondents voiced concern about
declining avenues for chir collection due to restrictions placed by the
forest department. An analysis of quantity of chir collected in both
survey years shows that average annual chir collection by the Sahariya
households.
declined from 7.2 quintals in 2003–04 to only 3.9 quintals in
2016–17. The loss in mean and median household collection of chir is
3.3 and 1.8 quintals, respectively (see Fig. 5). Though the distribution
appears to be positively skewed in both periods, in 2016–17 it is more
concentrated towards lower values, suggesting an overall loss in
household chir collection.
The decline in chir collection would have resulted in a far steeper fall
in household income, had it not been for the offsetting impact of rising
chir prices due to deregulation of chir trade in 2003. In Bagcha and other
villages in and around KNP, the deregulation of NTFP trade gradually
placed the agency of chir harvesting and selling with the customary right
holders, the Sahariya. According to our respondents, in villages like
Agara (on the north-east periphery of KNP) there were palpable im­
provements in the freedom to collect chir from the neighbouring forest.
Moreover, with the opening of the market, new traders rapidly entered
chir trade, and Sahariya harvesters were able to improve their earnings
by selling chir to the highest bidder. Our survey reveals that during
2003–04, the average price of chir was INR 2500 per quintal, which
increased to INR 14,000 per quintal by 2016–17. Thus, the fall in NTFP
income due to loss of forest access was significantly cushioned by the
rise in chir price. If adjusting for this positive price effect, decline in
income between the two survey periods would have been noteworthy.
Not surprisingly the Sahariya of Bagcha are deeply concerned about
their declining forest access. Our interviews and focus-group discussions
in Bagcha, supplemented with data from the Management Plan (2020) of
KNP, sheds light on the spatial dimensions of loss of access to the salai
forests and coping strategies deployed by the people of Bagcha.
Before moving on to this, it is important to highlight the existing
‘mechanisms of access’ by which the Sahariya carry out chir collection.
Under the unique indigenous tree tenure system (ITTS) of the Sahariya,
the salai forest is subdivided into clearly demarcated and socially
recognized tree patches ‘belonging’ to different households. On each
patch, the community recognizes and respects the undisputed right of
chir harvesting, fallowing, renting, leasing and inheritance of trees
(Kabra et al., 2023). Right to a salai patch can be obtained by a house­
hold through the act of labour (making an incision at the base of the tree
and tapping gum from it), or inheritance, or both. The ITTS in the salai
forest mimics all elements of private property, and is enacted and
maintained through a socially sanctioned, relational regime of property
(Kabra et al., 2023; Mahalwal and Kabra, 2023). The Sahariya of Bagcha
used to follow the same ITTS historically in the adjacent salai forests,
according to our respondents. As population of the village grew, new
trees were claimed, depending on availability of household labour. In
households where availability of male labour force was limited, a typical
practice was to invite a son-in-law or any close male member from the
5. Findings and analysis
We carried out a comparison of total household income and the share
of income derived from different livelihood sources in Bagcha between
2004 and 05 and 2016–17. The results presented in Fig. 3 and Table 3
reveal that combined average household income from all sources
declined marginally between the two survey years, mainly due to loss of
income from NTFP. The test of significance shows that the change in
income is not statistically significant. This happened due to rising
market prices, which prevented a significant decline in the household
incomes.
It must be noted that with a price-adjusted average annual per capita
income of approximately INR 10,000 (USD 122) in 2004–05 and INR
9730 (USD 119), the level of extreme poverty14 in this village is
remarkable. The per capita daily household income is only USD 0.33.
Assuming an average household has 4.5 members, the daily per capita
income of a resident of Bagcha is an abysmal USD 0.07.
The share of NTFP in total income of the Sahariya of Bagcha
decreased marginally between 2004 and 05 and 2016–17. Income from
NTFP accounts for around 70 to 72 % of total income, indicating that the
Sahariya of Bagcha are predominantly reliant on forests for survival.
Agriculture contributed the second highest share in household income,
with its contribution rising from 19 to 25 % between 2004 and 05 and
2016–17. It is noteworthy that average household income from farming
is only around INR 2380 or USD 29 per annum! The rise in the share of
farming in household income is at the cost of the contribution of other
income sources, mainly daily wages, petty trade and remittances.
Table 3 highlights the critical importance of NTFP in the lives of the
Sahariya of Bagcha. Our research indicates that the surrounding forest
provides people with additional resources like occasional and seasonal
wild food and fuel wood. The Sahariya collects fruit of Mahua (Madhuca
longifolia) and tendu bil (Diospyros melanoxylon) during summers, sait
14
The World Bank pegs the new ‘extreme poverty line’ at USD 2.15 per person
per
day
(https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/factsheet/2022/05/02/
fact-sheet-an-adjustment-to-global-poverty-lines).
6
S. Mahalwal and A. Kabra
Biological Conservation 286 (2023) 110264
Fig. 3. Composition of household income in 2003–04 and 2016–17 (in Rs.). The graph shows the contribution of each livelihood in the annual household income.
Bagcha. Initially, the people of Bagcha expanded their chir harvesting
activities to the highly productive but now unclaimed salai patches
belonging to these relocated villages. Gradually, however, the forest
department began to place stronger restrictions on NTFP collection in­
side the Kuno sanctuary. Checkposts were placed strategically on the
paths leading from Bagcha to the Kuno sanctuary area, and fines and
other punishments were meted out for transgression. Thus, practically
overnight, the socially acceptable ITTS in the eastern forests began to
come under stress due to changed ‘mechanisms of access’ and the
strengthening of fortress conservation.
The Sahariya of Bagcha coped with this loss by shifting their chir
harvesting activities to the South Sironi range, which is spread over an
area of 17,250 ha (Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, 2020). The
South Sironi range was historically used by Sahariya households from
villages Bagcha and Sironi for collection of various NTFPs. Under the
ITTS, these two villages had clearly demarcated salai patches in this
range. According to our respondents, the Sahariya of Bagcha own the
Salai patches within a range of 6 to 7 km of their village, while the
remaining salai forest had historically been claimed by the harvesters of
Sironi village. Chir collection by Bagcha in the South Sironi range
happened infrequently, because of the low density of trees and easier
access to the eastern side.
According to the Management Plan of Kuno Wildlife Division (2020),
61 % of the forest in South Sironi range belongs to the scattered forest
category. Around 89 % of the range area has forest quality in category
IVa and above.15 This implies that the trees in South Sironi range are of
below average quality. Nearly 64 % of the range area has salai trees, but
only 2 % of the trees belong to the young age group, while 82 % are
middle-aged trees (Madhya Pradesh Forest Department, 2020). Our re­
spondents reported that as the salai trees age, their gum-yield starts
declining. It is not surprising, then, that chir collection was reported to
decline between our first and second surveys. Once chir tapping in the
eastern forest was forbidden, Bagcha's chir harvesters were left with the
limited area of South Sironi for collection of chir, fuel wood and other
NTFP. This adversely impacted the number of NTFPs available and led to
a drastic decline in quantum of chir collection, as shown above (Fig. 5).
Added pressure on the open forest of the South Sironi range has also
affected the sustainability of chir harvesting in this salai forest. The
Sahariya traditionally follow a cyclical harvesting pattern, allowing
adequate time for tapped trees to heal and regain strength (Mahalwal
Table 3
Average household income for 2003–04 and 2016–17 (in Rs). Mean income from
each source for 2003–04 and 2016–17 survey years are given in the table. The
overall mean household income is mentioned in the last column.
Survey
years
Income sources
Farming
Livestock
NTFP
Wages &
others
2003–04
2016–17
1921
2380
0
11
7058
6905
1041
435
Overall mean
income
10,019
9730
Table 4
Per cent contribution of chir in annual household income (in per cent).
Table compares the per cent share of chir in household NTFP income and in
overall household income.
2003–04
2016–17
Percent share of chir in household
NTFP income
Percent share of chir in overall
household income
63
76
44
57
extended family to handle the task of chir harvesting. In many cases,
Sahariya males from relocated villages married in Bagcha, in households
with fewer male members, and settled there to manage the salai trees of
their father-in-law.
The two main areas where their ITTS-based tree claims were
concentrated were towards the east, in the Kuno wildlife sanctuary area,
and the west, in the South Sironi range (see Fig. 6). The salai forests on
the eastern periphery of Bagcha had dense and abundant salai trees,
which were divided between Bagcha and other villages like Palpur,
Paira etc. Given the proximity and abundance of salai trees, this was the
preferred area for chir harvesting for most people in Bagcha. The
abundant forest allowed for maximum collection of chir, and facilitated
the indigenous rotational harvesting, which helped the trees recuperate
and provided opportunities for claiming new trees. It is important to
note that sustainable chir collection through rotational harvesting is an
essential component of Sahariya's salai management as it ensures the
good health of the trees (Mahalwal and Kabra, 2023).
However, access to this part of the forest was seriously disrupted
after 2004, with intensification of fortress conservation in the Kuno
forests. The Asiatic Lion reintroduction project led to the displacement
of 24 villages from the then Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary (Kabra and
Mahalwal, 2014), including the villages located close to present-day
15
Trees in I and II forest quality categories are considered the best quality,
while Category IV refers to poor quality.
7
S. Mahalwal and A. Kabra
Biological Conservation 286 (2023) 110264
Fig. 4. Share of 4 major contributors in NTFP income of the households (in per cent). Chir contributes the highest share of income in both survey years.
Fig. 5. Boxplots showing the annual chir collection (in kg). The mean and median collection of chir in 2016–17 is lower than the 2003–04 levels.
The notification of Kuno as a National Park16 in early 2018 stated
that village Bagcha, with an area of 30.34 ha, will form a part of KNP.
This sparked further anxieties among the residents of Bagcha, who have
been told for at least the past five years that their relocation is
impending. Under the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, this
appears to be a foregone conclusion. However, instead of acquiring the
rights of the people of Bagcha as per the Forest Rights Act of 2006, the
forest department is relying on the NTCA's voluntary relocation scheme
to remove this village from the KNP.
A two-pronged strategy is being deployed to generate consent for
relocation under the NTCA scheme. Some respondents report that heg­
emonic narratives of win-win solutions for people and wildlife, the
promise of secure rights to canal irrigated agricultural land, electricity,
school etc. are being floated to gain people's interest in voluntary relo­
cation. In addition, there are rumours about cash compensation of INR
375,000 for each adult villager.
During the field work in February 2023, villagers reported that forest
and Kabra, 2023). Having salai trees at multiple locations facilitated this
process for the Sahariya of Bagcha. However, with limited forest access
and increased intensity of chir harvesting, the pressure on sparse salai
trees in South Sironi is immense. These trees have been tapped for more
than a decade, with adverse impacts on gum yields. The Sahariya har­
vesters of Bagcha are well-aware of this, and they report low and
declining chir productivity as follows:
We used to collect 20–25 kg of chir in a single visit from the sanc­
tuary, but from Sironi we never managed to get >2–4 kg.
The combination of these factors explains why, in just a span of
twelve years, annual chir collection in Bagcha has declined by 46 %.
Even though decline in household incomes is not significant, the people
of Bagcha recognize that this is attributed solely to the one-time positive
effect of deregulation of chir trade. Any further increase in the market
prices of chir is likely to be occasional, depending on demand and supply
dynamics in the extra-local market in India and globally. The Sahariya of
Bagcha do not have any assurance that their present chir-based liveli­
hoods will sustain, let alone grow. In fact, their vulnerability and un­
certainty has intensified in the wake of the internationally important
cheetah conservation project that was initiated in KNP in 2018.
16
8
Notification number F-15-52-2002-X-2 dated the 14th December 2018.
S. Mahalwal and A. Kabra
Biological Conservation 286 (2023) 110264
Fig. 6. Salai forests adjacent to Bagcha. Bagcha, as shown in the map, is surrounded by forest which has salai patches. On the eastern side, it has the dense and good
quality forests of KWS where chir extraction got banned in early 2000 and on the west is the open forest of recently notified KNP, with low gum-producing salai trees.
officials took them to visit a prospective relocation site. They assessed
the land and found the area to be inadequate for all the villagers. They
have reportedly raised their concern with the forest officials. and stated
explicitly that they will only move from their present location provided
each adult villager gets irrigated farmland at the relocation site. How­
ever, side-lining all these concerns, the village was relocated to the same
site in May 2023.17
Simultaneously, since the introduction of cheetahs in the KNP, the
forest department is creating serious disruption in the present liveli­
hoods of the people of Bagcha by strictly curtailing forest access. Various
means are deployed to discourage villagers from accessing the forest for
grazing livestock and collecting fuel wood, chir and other NTFP. Armed
forest guards accompanied by sniffer dogs patrol the forest regularly.
During an FGD, villagers reported that last year two men had gone to
collect chir in Sironi when they were arrested by the forest department
and sent to the district jail in Sheopur. These power-laden tactics led to
widespread discontent among the villagers, who made a representation
to the Divisional Forest Officer. In a brief respite, they were given
permission to continue chir collection till the time they get relocated.
However, even for ongoing chir collection, forest guards have begun to
inconvenience NTFP traders, by restricting the entry of four-wheeled
loading vehicles to Bagcha for transporting the harvested chir for sale
to traders located in Sheopur, the district headquarters. This was a
common practice prior to the release of cheetahs in KNP, but lately this
trade network has come under increased surveillance of the forest bu­
reaucracy. Harvesters reported that in 2021, a forest check-post (chowki)
was built near village Dobh (see map in Fig. 5), and forest guards began
restricting four-wheeler from passing beyond this point. After prolonged
petitioning, village level chir traders are now allowed to carry raw
harvest in limited volume on motor-cycles.
Such tactics augment the day-to-day challenges and precarity of
17
Since this development is recent and the study reports the findings of field
work conducted till February 2023, further details are beyond the scope of this
paper.
9
S. Mahalwal and A. Kabra
Biological Conservation 286 (2023) 110264
livelihoods of the Sahariya in Bagcha. Not surprisingly, this feeds into
their gradual desire to consent to relocation. As one respondent said:
We will have to go, they (forest department) have left sher18 in the
forest. Tendua19 are a common sight, few days back I saw a tendua when
I went to get chir.
This section showed how the Sahariya of Bagcha navigated the
changing policy regime of NTFP governance during the era of territo­
riality for extraction. However, territoriality for conservation, unleashed
by the lion conservation project and intensified after introduction of
cheetahs has eroded their adaptive capacity and created a reluctant
acceptance of impending relocation. Loss of access to the forest, espe­
cially chir, would cause a major setback to the livelihoods of the
Sahariya community.
The NTCA relocation package is designed to convert the farm-forestlivestock-wage complex of local Sahariya livelihoods into a predomi­
nantly agrarian way of life. Evidence from other conservation dis­
placements in India and elsewhere shows that this is likely to be deeply
impoverishing (Cernea and Schmidt-Soltau, 2003; Kabra, 2009; Mil­
groom and Spierenburg, 2008). The compensation amount promised
under the NTCA package includes a lumpsum cash option (Rs 15 lakh
per family (Kabra and Das, 2022)), or the option to receive part payment
in cash and two hectares of land.20 Prevailing land prices in central India
preclude the possibility of buying good quality irrigated land with the
assigned amount (Chakravorty, 2013). A recent report shows that ac­
cording to government data, for smallholders with <2 ha of land in
India's drylands, consumption expenditure exceeds income from
farming (Kumar et al., 2020, p. 23). Another recent research of house­
holds displaced from Kanha national park under the NTCA scheme
shows that over 80 % of relocated households were chronically food
insecure (Neelakantan et al., 2021). This indicates that unless there is
immediate policy change, hunger, precarity, arduous wage labour, cir­
cular migration and indebtedness lie in store for the Sahariya who will
be relocated from Bagcha. Moreover, they will lose the tenuous food
security that their forest-based livelihood provided, along with loss of
access to fuel, fodder, wild food and medicinal herbs. The intangible loss
of biocultural heritage and traditional knowledge, of course, is
incalculable.
within the area of the national park. However, the rights of the people to
land and forest produce under the provisions of the Forest Rights Act
were not recognized, nor were any options of coexistence explored, as
mandated under this law. Instead, through long-term processes of slow
violence, as well as new tactics for restricting forest access, people were
pushed towards accepting the one-time compensation promised under
the NTCA package to move out ‘voluntarily.’ Our results suggest that
chir collection in Bacha was dwindling as Adivasi harvesters were
pushed towards less productive patches which have competing claims
from other villages. With the introduction of cheetahs in KNP, a slew of
new restrictions and heightened policing of the forest was combined
with escalating pressure to accept the NTCA package. A combination of
these measures finally pushed the people of Bagcha towards moving out
of their forest home in 2023.
Denial of access to the Kuno forest has been historically justified by
the conservationist state to create and maintain inviolate areas for the
protection of iconic and nationally important species like lions and
cheetahs. However, legally instituted measures for safeguarding the
rights of forest dwellers, as enshrined in the FRA, continue to be side­
lined in KNP. The legal imperative to recognize forest rights is adroitly
sidestepped by the supposed consent of the villagers for voluntary
relocation (Kabra and Das, 2022). The ability of the local community to
demand these rights and seek implementation of progressive legislations
like the FRA is circumscribed by historic processes of slow violence,
which have eroded their ability to sustain their forest-based livelihoods.
Gradually shrinking forest access, increased uncertainties, and
relentless pressure from the forest department undergird the apparently
paradoxical willingness of the Sahariya community to relocate to a site
where they feel that prospects of livelihood restoration are bleak. As
shown in the study, the traditional chir gum-resin harvesting practices of
the Sahariya were flexible and adaptive, and were able to withstand
policy changes like deregulation of NTFP trade as well as early re­
strictions on forest access due to the Asiatic lion reintroduction project.
However, it is evident that the current and far more aggressive thrust
towards fortress conservation for the African cheetah conservation
project has forced them to acquiesce to ‘voluntary’ relocation, due to
slowly but steadily eroding possibilities of continuing their NTFP-based
livelihoods. For conservation policies to be socially just, it is vital to
unpack proposed win-win solutions and attend to the highly inequitable
long-term political processes that form the sub-text of these policy so­
lutions. After decades of meticulous social science research and inter­
disciplinary efforts, the importance of social justice for conservation
finally became a cornerstone of conservation policy worldwide. The
emergence of the notion of ‘voluntary relocation’ as a win-win solution
for people and parks threatens to undo these hard-won discursive gains.
This article hopes to trigger an informed debate to retain and regain the
centrality of non-displacing models of biodiversity conservation in the
twenty first century.
6. Conclusion
This article examined the past and ongoing impact of fortress con­
servation on the Sahariya of Bagcha by illustrating the challenges posed
to their forest-based livelihoods and indigenous tree tenure system. The
focus of forest governance has shifted gradually from extraction to
conservation, as shown in Section 4. While extractive forest governance
regimes provided some space for local communities to continue prac­
ticing forest-dependent livelihoods, this is increasingly difficult under
fortress conservation regimes. Potential livelihood gains from deregu­
lation of NTFP prices have been diluted due to closing of the forest
frontier, as shown in Section 5. Our long-term study demonstrates how
the ability of the Sahariya to collect NTFP, especially chir gum-resin, has
been declining gradually. Initially, closing of the forest frontiers for the
proposed Asiatic Lion reintroduction project in the late 1990s posed a
serious setback to their chir collection practices in the dense forests of
the KWS where salai trees were available in abundance. The notification
of KNP in 2018 led to expansion of the park boundary and further
closing of forest frontiers. Villages like Bagcha, earlier situated adjacent
to the park boundary, were threatened by eviction because they now fell
18
19
20
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper
Data availability
Data will be made available on request.
Local term for a big cat, used synonymously for tigers, lions, leopards etc.
Local term for leopard
F. No. 15–4/2010-NTCA (Part-III)
10
S. Mahalwal and A. Kabra
Biological Conservation 286 (2023) 110264
Appendix A. Appendix
A.1. Adjusting household incomes using CPI
Both data sets accounted for the income earned by the households over the preceding 12 months, which was adjusted to maintain comparability.
Both surveys recorded annual household cash income, and not the subsistence income. The same questionnaire schedule was used in both rounds of
data collection.
To conduct a meaningful comparison of household incomes between the two surveys, nominal income from each livelihood source was adjusted
using the consumer price index (CPI). We used the annual CPI for rural labourers of Madhya Pradesh, which is provided by Labour Bureau of Ministry
of Labour and Employment, India. The CPI for 2003–04 and 2016–17 are 326 and 816, respectively.
Adjusted household income was derived using the following equation:
AY ix = (NY ix /CPI x ) × 100
where, AY = Adjusted Income; NY = Nominal Income; CPI = Consumer Price Index; i = income source, for example income from farming, NTFPs
etc.; and x = survey year
Since the households of Bagcha had multiple income sources, we have calculated the adjusted income for each livelihood. These adjusted incomes
have been used to get the total annual income for each household.
A.2. Descriptive statistics
Variables
Overall household income
Farming
Livestock
NTFP
Others
Household income from chir
Household collection of chir
2003–04
2016–17
Mean
Median
Standard Deviation
Min
Max
Mean
Median
Standard Deviation
Min
Max
10,019
1921
0
7058
1041
4753
723
7819
1170
0
5322
917
3068
480
6134
2412
0
5386
716
4497
688
1696
− 626
0
773
92
221
36
27,741
10,311
9731
2380
11
6905
435
4909
389
7453
982
0
5366
0
3860
305
6213
2978
53
4400
1440
3059
253
2250
0
0
1392
0
1017
83
26,158
11,262
306
24,124
10,196
16,544
1350
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