Introduction - Overview of Issues - Projects - Map of Bandhavgarh - Bandhavgarh Flora and Fauna Photographs - Village Photographs - Get Involved - Contact
Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve is plagued by the problems typical of efforts in tiger protection in India, including habitat destruction, wildlife and wood poaching, human disturbance, and extreme pressure on limited forest resources. The reserve includes fourteen villages and is bound by over seventy villages more. The human and cattle pressure on the resources of wood, grass, water, and land is enormous and competes heavily with the wildlife. It is extremely common to find cattle grazing or at water holes inside of the park, even in the most protected tourist zone. The majority of villagers bring their daily fuelwood supply from the reserve. While poaching of more exotic wildlife, such as the tiger and leopard, is generally initiated by outsiders, hunting for meat is commonly practiced by local villagers. Outsiders hunting tigers and leopards rely on the knowledge of these locals who house and guide them in exchange for money.
Attempts to control the movement of people and cattle through the reserve is unsuccessful due to limited resources and poor management. Over seventy villages border the protected area, often with only a small mound marking the boundary. Guards are posted in each village, but they are usually easily bribed to turn a blind eye to illegal activities. Furthermore, they are unarmed and at high risk in their isolated location without quick access to aid and support from the Forest Department. Walls and fences along parts of the boundary are destroyed at several locations for passageways for villagers and cattle. The wall along the western boundary of the tourist (Tala) zone is marked with at least ten such paths in a few kilometer stretch. The Forest Department seems unable to control such problems with limited manpower and resources. Villagers also react harshly to actions by the Forest Department, viewing it as an enemy blocking their access to the plentiful and formerly available resources of the forest. The massive destruction of their crops by wild herbivores without any compensation, relief, or alternative income source fuels this animosity, which is directed at both the wildlife and the department. The profiting of some department officers through corruption and misuse of funds is another source of contention. These sentiments result in mistrust of the Forest Department and a general apathy toward their programs.
The tourism industry has further aggravated this situation. While tourism is lauded as the perfect alternative income source for villages, the actual situation is much different. Hardly seven percent of revenue from tourism is actually returned to locals, in the form of salaries or payment for goods. This small amount rarely reaches past the main tourism village of Tala (from project contact's research project, The effects of tourism on the land, the wildlife, and the local population of Bandhavgarh National Park, conducted in 1999). The further profiting of department officials from this source exacerbates the hostility of villagers, who feel they rightfully deserve to benefit from the park as well.
Villagers are frustrated by their lack of access to necessary facilities and little opportunity to improve their living standards. Health care is among the most pressing issues. Villagers must travel up to thirty kilometers by foot over extremely difficult roads and trails to reach clinics. The ill can rarely make this trip, and doctors, when summoned, rarely come. Preventative health care is nonexistent, and illnesses are often reported only when advanced. Payment for services and medicine is also a problem, as the majority of families survive on yearly incomes of less than fifty dollars. When surveyed last year, most villagers named this as one of their major grievances. The Forest Department and other nongovernmental organizations occasionally hold clinics; however, they usually are held once or twice a year and only in the most accessible villages from the highway. Residents from remote villages are often ignored for the sake of convenience. Regular access to doctors and provision of medicines are desperately needed for immediate relief, as well as the training of more educated villagers in basic medical care, midwifery, population control, and holistic and preventative medicine for long-term progress.
Education is another major issue in remote forest areas. While schools are present in nearly every village, few children continue past fifth grade, at which point they must move to one of the major villages to study up to eighth or tenth grade. There are presently no options for training in useful or profitable skills, and information on new technologies or different methods of construction, farming, or improving health and living standards rarely seep down to their villages. Such methods, when they are introduced, often seem risky, expensive, and laborious. Their impact on forest resources and the consequences for the survival of their progeny are rarely considered.
Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, because of its fame, has attracted much attention, and a few organizations have been created to address various issues. However, all of these organizations are offshoots of local lodges or businesses. The secondary importance given to conservation work compromises the amount of attention and resources appropriated to projects. Consequently, projects are often inconsistent and inefficient. Monitoring for long-term success rarely occurs. Of the three existing organizations, one focuses its efforts on educating tourists in conservation topics, holds yearly health camps in Tala and its neighboring villages, and gives legal training to Forest Department staff. The extent of their range of activities is limited to Tala and three neighboring villages. Another organization has abandoned most of its activities in recent years, but it remains as part of a lodge. The last provides clothes to local children (in one village, to date).
An independent, non-profit organization to provide consistent aid to villagers, working toward the goal of giving villagers the means, understanding, and training to improve their living standards and reduce their dependence on forest resources is sorely needed. The Forest Department has begun to modify their present ecodevelopment program to work toward this goal. BPP's program has been incorporated into their plans, and the program contact has attended several meetings with officials and villagers to begin the process. Furthermore, the program contact has visited all 73 villages and created the first comprehensive record of the bordering villages, their populations, and various routes, which provided the information necessary to choose sites for starting medical clinics.
At present, villagers are skeptical of outside help, as it is inconsistent and often impractical. Immediate relief, in the form of regular medical clinics, will prove more successful in gaining a positive response from villagers. The accompanying training and educating of villagers in improving their living and health standards and productivity will provide long-term relief and independence from outside help. Introducing conservation ideals and the need for sustainable living through modeling and helping implement new methods will greatly reduce the impact on the forest resources and, hopefully, convince locals on the need for protection of forested areas.
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