Understanding People’s Relationship With Wildlife in Trans-Himalayan Folklore

Saloni Bhatia,Stephen Mark Redpath,Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi,Stanzin Namgail,Charudutt Mishra

doi:10.3389/fenvs.2021.595169

Abstract

People’s views and values for wild animals are often a result of their experiences and traditional knowledge. Local folklore represents a resource that can enable an understanding of the nature of human-wildlife interactions, especially the underlying cultural values. Using archival searches and semi-structured interviews, we collected narratives about the ibex (Capra sibirica) (n = 69), and its predators, the wolf (Canis lupus) (n = 52) and the snow leopard (Panthera uncia) (n = 43), in Ladakh, India. We compared these stories to those of a mythical carnivore called seng ge or snow lion (n = 19), frequently referenced in local Tibetan Buddhist folklore and believed to share many of the traits commonly associated with snow leopards (except for livestock depredation). We then categorized the values along social-cultural, ecological and psychological dimensions. We found that the ibex was predominantly associated with utilitarianism and positive symbolism. Both snow leopard and wolf narratives referenced negative affective and negative symbolic values, though more frequently in the case of wolves. Snow leopard narratives largely focused on utilitarian and ecologistic values. In contrast, snow lion narratives were mostly associated with positive symbolism. Our results suggest that especially for snow leopards and wolves, any potentially positive symbolic associations appeared to be overwhelmed by negative sentiments because of their tendency to prey on livestock, unlike in the case of the snow lion. Since these values reflect people’s real and multifarious interactions with wildlife, we recommend paying greater attention to understanding the overlaps between natural and cultural heritage conservation to facilitate human-wildlife coexistence.

Highlights

People’s relationship with wild animals is rarely simple or static
While we were open to stories on any wildlife species, we found an adequate number of stories on the primary wild prey, the ibex (Capra sibirica) and its top predators, the wolf and the snow leopard (Panthera uncia)
Even though we welcomed stories around all animals, we found a reasonable sample of folklore/narratives around four species, namely the ibex, the wolf, the snow leopard, and the snow lion

Summary

Introduction

People’s relationship with wild animals is rarely simple or static. It covers multiple states from reverence to fear, sometimes simultaneously. The term human-wildlife conflict has assumed centerstage, leading to the belief that most forms of interaction with wildlife result in damage to life and/or property (Redpath et al, 2014). Human-wildlife interactions are instead better viewed along a spectrum ranging from negative to positive (Bhatia et al, 2019). One way to understand how people build and sustain complex and multifarious connections with wildlife is to examine folklore and narratives in which the two are intertwined (Hughes et al, 2020).

Methods

Results

Conclusion