Conservation of Forest and community rights: a studyof people’s Livelihood Rights in the Periphery of Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India

Abstract

Kaziranga National Park, the world heritage site of Assam, presents its own unilinear thread of success in the Indian forest conservation history. Known as the only abode of the Asiatic one horned Rhinoceros and a few other endangered fauna, the national park seems to be at the receiving end of a state driven pursuit of modern scientific conservation that demarcates hitherto non-existing boundaries between the park and the people in its periphery. Here the paper tries to find out the colonial roots of forest conservation in India in general and the state of Assam in particular, to establish a linkage between implementation of forest acts and administrative policies in Independent India and the diminishing status of community forest rights in the fringe villages of the national park of Kaziranga (KNP). The paper examines various aspects of infringement of livelihood rights in 20 sampled villages undertaken for the study in and around 5 protected areas of the park and tries to offer possible solutions with an inclusive approach aimed at safeguarding both livelihood rights and natural resource management in the park’s periphery.