Contested forests: The Van Gujjars' struggle to settle

Abstract

The paper explores how the nomadic community of Van Gujjars are engaged in reproductions of forest-based settlement forms and construction of the Himalayan landscape through contestation and adaptation of State Forest policies. The paper first elaborates on the traditional settlement system of khols in the Shivalik forests, to better understand the Van Gujjars’ relationship with the landscape. Secondly, the paper examines resettlement of the community from the Rajaji National Park (RNP). Two case studies, of the Kunau Chaud and Gaindikhata resettlement sites, demonstrate the adaptive capacities of site-based systems against the sociocultural inadequacies of top-down planning. The paper attempts to foreground the case as an archetype of forest urbanism. Forest urbanism, which iterates between landscape urbanism and urban forestry, focuses on settlement and nature entanglements and the role of forests in structuring the environment. Instead of stereotyping traditional settling systems as backwards, and in line with David Graeber and David Wengrow’s perspective on humanity,1 the forest urbanism of the Van Guijars’ mode of settling is seen as an intriguing gaze into an inspirational world of possibilities.