om e 's Ali a - Land ss De elo en - Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, India Office

100
Women’s Alienation
zone by the government in 2005.
Interestingly since 2002, a Corbett
Country Project is being run in the Jim
Corbett Park, under which 805 acres
in Hempur (between Kashipur and
Ramnagar areas of Nainital district) is
being used to establish a tourist hub.
The project is solely being developed
by private capital. Earlier, in 2000 the
area of Nanda Devi National Park was
also increased.
The fallout has been severe: ever since
forest land has become ‘protected’,
all rights of people over this protected
land have ceased. Moreover, there
are now increased incidents of wild
animals killing people and destroying
crops. Many have left farming due to
the fear of animals and most of the
farms have become arid. No longer
having access to forest produce,
people are migrating for survival.
3. Privatisation of Parks
As per 1953 data, parks and gardens,
in Uttarakhand, were spread across
26,000 acres of land. Later, this area
increased to two lakh acres. When
Govind Ballabh Pant was the CM of
Uttar Pradesh, the government made
special efforts to promote horticulture
and floriculture in the hilly region.
That’s why a separate fruit industry
department was created for the
region to undertake activities like
seed preservation and distribution,
opening of nurseries providing a
variety of quality fruit and flower
plants and also exporting them to
neighbouring countries like Nepal and
Bhutan. But after the creation of new
state, the successive governments
sold off these nurseries and parks to
big corporate houses at throwaway
prices. In 2001, a plan was hatched
to privatise 154 parks spread all over
the state. Seven such parks covering
130 hectares of agricultural land were
handed over to private institutions
and corporates including Dabor India,
TERI, L.R.Brothers, Himcon etc on
a meager lease amount which was
worked out as 2.5 per cent of the
land cost for the first ten years and
five per cent for the next 15 years.
4. Industry
The stated objective of Uttarakhand’s
Industrial Policy 2003 is to speedily
make available land for industrial
units and projects. It also laid stress on
the development of infrastructure to
cater to the needs of the upcoming
industrial units. At the time of
acquisition of land, people, at large,
were given the impression that
industrial development will generate