Snow Leopards, Checkpoints, and Roads: Negotiating Selective Legibility in Hemis National Park, India

Abstract

Established with the goal of protecting endangered species, Hemis National Park in Ladakh, India, is a hotspot for trekkers and wildlife tourism. A process of selective legibility operates inside the park, as the conditions that make wildlife legible to the state are effectively rendering residents illegible because the building of infrastructure inside the park is either denied or delayed. Today, residents’ subsistence is largely predicated on the conditions of illegibility, as tourism-related incomes have displaced traditional agro-pastoral activities. Residents, however, have strong aspirations for roads, the absence of which complicates life within the national park. As the developing road network threatens to disturb residents’ subsistence, they developed a checkpoint, a device that recreates conditions of illegibility by preventing vehicle traffic inside the park. Ultimately, this article calls for attention to the creative ways communities negotiate their relationship with the state when facing a governance over space that leaves them marginalised.