TIGER TASK FORCE REPORT JOINING THE DOTS ■that began in 1996. Both projects ran with partfundingand part-grants from <strong>the</strong> World Bank and <strong>the</strong>Global Environment Facility.The India Ecodevelopment Project had <strong>the</strong>following basic objectives: 91. Improve protected areas management: This wasto be done to streng<strong>the</strong>n forest departmentcapacities and increase people’s participation inpark management.2. Village ecodevelopment: This was aimed atreducing negative impacts <strong>of</strong> ‘local people’ onparks and vice versa. This asked for participatorymicroplanning <strong>of</strong> activities at <strong>the</strong> village level, tohelp villages and <strong>the</strong> forest department decide ona set <strong>of</strong> reciprocal promises. The forestdepartment would provide alternativelivelihoods and <strong>the</strong> people would commit tohelp <strong>the</strong> department in better managing andprotecting <strong>the</strong> forest. Ecodevelopment alsomeant so-called special programmes, including<strong>the</strong> ‘option’ <strong>of</strong> voluntary relocation and o<strong>the</strong>r‘investments’ to benefit people and biodiversity.3. Generate support for park management andecodevelopment: The project also focussed onenvironmental education and visitormanagement at <strong>the</strong> parks. More importantly, itpromised funds for impact monitoring and goalorientedecological and social science research.When this project was in preparation in 1991-1992,<strong>the</strong> Forestry Research Education and ExtensionProject’s ecodevelopment work was taken as amodel. The India Ecodevelopment Project took oneand-ahalf years, and numerous consultations, tocome into being. The Union government hired <strong>the</strong>Indian Institute <strong>of</strong> Planning and Administration,New Delhi, to chalk out <strong>the</strong> ‘indicative plan’, aproposal submitted by <strong>the</strong> government to <strong>the</strong> WorldBank to launch formal negotiations, which <strong>the</strong>department <strong>of</strong> economic affairs took up with <strong>the</strong>Bank in 1994.The project initially began with eight sites inmind. The one to be finally rejected was Simlipal inOrissa, for <strong>the</strong> state government had relocatedvillages even as <strong>the</strong> project was being planned and<strong>the</strong> Bank did not want to be associated with a sitethat had relocated people. The government finallyselected and proposed seven sites: all but two weretiger reserves — Gir national park and sanctuary inGujarat and <strong>the</strong> Nagarhole national park in Karnataka(see map: The India Ecodevelopment Project). Thelatter was later on added to <strong>the</strong> Bandipur tigerreserve.What is interesting is <strong>the</strong> way <strong>the</strong> projectdelineated <strong>the</strong> idea <strong>of</strong> fringe. Usually, <strong>the</strong> impact <strong>of</strong> afringe radiates out from a park periphery till itSOURCE OF FUNDS FORINDIA ECODEVELOPMENT PROJECTFunding agency US $ (million) Per centInternational Development Agency 28.00 42GEF Trust 20.00 30Project beneficiaries 4.59 7State government 9.06 13Union government 5.36 8Total (for 28 reserves) 67.00 100Source: Anon 1996, Staff Appraisal <strong>Report</strong>, World Bank, Washingtonbecomes negligible. But even as <strong>the</strong> projectproponents and <strong>the</strong> government discussed <strong>the</strong> limit<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> ‘fringe’, what ultimately came to be understoodas a fringe was via a random idea <strong>of</strong> what waspractical ra<strong>the</strong>r than what was necessary. So, in <strong>the</strong>case <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Buxa tiger reserve in West Bengal, forinstance, even though <strong>the</strong> project was aware <strong>of</strong>125,601 scheduled tribe people working in <strong>the</strong>surrounding tea gardens, it finally excluded <strong>the</strong>m. 10Similarly, in Nagarhole national park in Karnataka,<strong>the</strong> population in <strong>the</strong> project area was 72,652 (as per<strong>the</strong> 1981 census), but <strong>the</strong> project identified only66,507 people to work with. 11 In o<strong>the</strong>r parks, too,people were left out for reasons <strong>of</strong> ‘practicality’.The project’s funds came from five primarysources (see table: Source <strong>of</strong> funds for IndiaEcodevelopment Project). At <strong>the</strong> same time, ‘ projectbeneficiaries’, as people were referred to in <strong>the</strong>project framework, had to contribute as well to <strong>the</strong>project cost. The idea was to bring in people’s stakein <strong>the</strong> project, and <strong>the</strong>refore into conservation, byasking <strong>the</strong>m to pitch in roughly seven per cent <strong>of</strong>what it would it would cost to launch activitiesunder <strong>the</strong> project. While this may look minimal ascompared to <strong>the</strong> overall costs, it meant substantialcontribution on <strong>the</strong> part <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> people. The moneywas to be spent under various heads.In all, <strong>the</strong> India Ecodevelopment Project decidedto consider 3,715 villages spread around <strong>the</strong> sevenparks (see box: Fringe villages): it would involve164,786 families and a population <strong>of</strong> 823,928. Again,one must emphasise this was not <strong>the</strong> total populationon <strong>the</strong> fringe <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> parks selected as project sites;this was <strong>the</strong> segment <strong>the</strong> project decided it couldafford to work with.The idea <strong>of</strong> ecodevelopmentThe key objective <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> project was to reduce <strong>the</strong>negative impacts <strong>of</strong> ‘local people’ on protected areasby providing alternative sources <strong>of</strong> firewood andincome.The way ahead 121
■ JOINING THE DOTS TIGER TASK FORCE REPORTTHE INDIA ECODEVELOPMENT PROJECT SITESRanthambhore tiger reserve1,035 sq km64,000 Rs 20.63 crore4 villages in nationalpark, 25 in sanctuaryBuxa tiger reserve761 sq km36,000 Rs 29.56 crore37 forest villages in <strong>the</strong> reserve, nosettlement in national parkRAJASTHANGUJARATGir national park andsanctuary1,412 sq km72,000 Rs 33.23 crore54 hamlets innational park,3 temple complexes, 14forest villagesMADHYA PRADESHMAHARASHTRAKARNATAKAKERALAJHARKHANDPalamau tiger reserve1,026 sq km75,000 Rs 11.25 crore3 forest villages,102 villages in enclavesPench tiger reserve758 sq km48,000 Rs 23.78 croreNo settlementNagarhole national park643 sq km70,000 Rs 32.37 crore54 tribal settlementsPeriyar tiger reserve777 sq km62,000 Rs 22.33 sq km3 tribal settlements,1 agricultural settlementArea (sq km) Number <strong>of</strong> beneficiaries Release <strong>of</strong> fund to parks (Rs crore) (up to 2002-03)Source: World Bank 2002, aide memoire, Annexure 3 budget and expenditure, November, mimeoAdministratively, <strong>the</strong> project went on to create aparallel set <strong>of</strong> village-level bodies called <strong>the</strong> villageecodevelopment committees. These consist <strong>of</strong>villagers along with a forester or guard as <strong>the</strong><strong>of</strong>ficiating secretary. The president <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> committeeis elected from among <strong>the</strong> committee members. Thecommittee was meant to sit with <strong>the</strong> department anda non-governmental organisation and make amicroplan <strong>of</strong> all activities it would undertake over<strong>the</strong> project period. In return for <strong>the</strong> forest departmentproviding alternative livelihoods using projectresources, people reciprocally promised to help <strong>the</strong>122 The way ahead