The slow violence of fortress conservation creates conditions for socially unjust ‘voluntary’ relocation

Abstract

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, commercial 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 livelihood data from two phases of household surveys conducted in 2005 and 2017. In addition, qualitative fieldwork (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 collecting 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 processes underlying ‘voluntary’ relocation and strive to look for more inclusive coexistence alternatives.