Jul 24, 2015

WWF Scandal (part 6): Evictions of Indigenous Peoples in India for Tiger tourism

French TV channel Canal Plus recently broadcast an investigation into mass tourism company Nouvelles Frontières. The programme includes a visit to the Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh state in India.
By Chris Lang / redd-monitor.org

Canal Plus reports that at least 22,000 people have been evicted from three tiger reserves on Nouvelles Frontières’ tour, about half of them from Kanha. Indigenous peoples are kicked out of the tiger reserve, but tourists are welcomed.

Here’s the Canal Plus documentary (in French). The report about Kanha starts at 37 minutes 18 seconds. Survival International has produced an unofficial English translation of the part of the programme about Kanha Tiger Reserve.

In 2012, India’s Ministry of Forests produced a report about planned evictions from tiger reserves. Canal Plus obtained a copy of the confidential report, which documents how many people would be evicted.

Canal Plus contacted the Ministry of Forests, but received no reply.

WWF provides infrastructural support, training and equipment for staff in Kanha Tiger Reserve. WWF’s panda logo is displayed at the entrance to the reserve:

 

2015-07-22-165637_1023x1026_scrot

 

Canal Plus’ journalists met with Yash Shethia, Associate Director of WWF-India’s Species and Landscapes Programme. Shethia does not condemn the evictions:

  • Reporter: Do you agree to say, today, as a representative of WWF, that you strongly condemn the resettlement of the villages. Like those that took place in the Kanha Reserve, for example.

     

    Yash Shethia: I would not put it like that. But we don’t encourage them. Under no circumstance do we support the resettlement of villages.

    Reporter: But are you opposed to it?

    ShethiaYash Shethia: Well we think that there’s a greater mission. If we engage with the authorities on six cases and we don’t share their point of view on one of them, why should we suspend the rest of our engagements, to the extent that we work with endangered animals?

    Reporter: Because this case in particular affects thousands of human beings – it’s not a small problem.

    Yash Shethia: “Obviously we’re putting all our effort into this case. You may not see what’s going on, it may not be obvious in every place but, very clearly, our colleagues on the ground are sending on our messages.

    Reporter: Thank you very much for your time and for answering these questions.

In 2012, Survival International filmed some of the Baiga tribe who then lived in Jholar village, inside the Kanha Tiger Reserve. Canal Plus reports that “this tribe is thought to have lived in this jungle for more than 20,000 years”.

In January 2014, Survival International reported that the Baiga had been forcibly and illegally evicted from their homes in Kanha. Canal Plus’ journalists visited the families after the evictions. They are living next to a road on the outskirts of a town 30 kilometres from the forest. Their new houses have no electricity and no drinking water.

Sukhdev, one of the men who spoke to Survival International in 2012, was killed after the eviction. His body was found after he tried to buy some land. In 2012, Sukhdev had said,

“We won’t find another place like this. How will we set up home there? How will we raise our children? We need our fields and homes… Won’t we die?”

Sukhdev’s brother, now living at the side of the road, told Canal Plus,

“You know, my brother had said everything in this video. That we wouldn’t leave the village. That we would not go anywhere else. We were one of the last families to resist. But the people from the reserve forced us to leave. They told us they’d take care of us for three years, but they didn’t do a thing. Even when my brother was killed, no one came to help us.”

Tourism in India’s tiger reserves has increased dramatically in recent years, to the point where it is threatening the tigers.

In 2013, Suhas Kumar, Additional Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), published a study he carried out in a personal capacity on the impact of tourism in India’s tiger reserves. Kumar points out that in Kanha and other tiger reserves, “ongoing practices and management … make tourism incompatible and detrimental to the primary objective conserving tiger”.

[R]apid escalation in visitor numbers in Kanha, Bandhavgarh and Pench tiger reserves and the resultant crowd, noise and litter is eroding the very sense of wilderness that visitors long to experience. On the other hand unplanned large scale construction of luxury resorts, hotels and dhabas along the periphery of the core zones hamper free movement of tiger by blocking open spaces thus adversely impacting the corridor functions of buffer forests.

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said,

“So-called ‘conservation’ continues to destroy tribal peoples as it has for generations. They’ve never threatened the tigers, who would do better if the tribes remained and the tourists stopped. Tribal peoples are generally better conservationists anyway than industrial-sized NGOs like WWF which stand by in silence while the parks forcibly evict people like Sukhdev and his family. It’s time these evictions are stopped and this scandal exposed.”

 


PHOTO credit: Survival International.

Corporations   Environment   Transition
Rate this article 
Related
The Silence of the Pandas - What the WWF Isn’t Saying
50 min · ** UPDATE 5 JAN 2017 SEE BELOW ** The WWF is the largest environmental protection organisation in the world. Trust in its green projects is almost limitless. Founded in 1961, it is the most influential lobby group for the environment...
Corporations
Economics
The New Story Revolution
Trending Videos
How Two Billionaires Erased a Rural Ohio Town
44 min - Today we will be exploring the homes abandoned in New Albany, Ohio, and why they went abandoned. - Stringer media
Palantir: The New Deep State
17 min - A former Palantir employee is sounding the alarm. The tech company, founded by Peter Thiel, claims they can revolutionize government systems with their AI-powered software. Theyve been hired by...
Schooling the World (2010)
66 min - If you wanted to change an ancient culture in a generation, how would you do it? You would change the way it educates its children. The U.S. Government knew this in the 19th century when it...
Carnage (2017)
65 min - It's 2067, the UK is vegan, but older generations are suffering the guilt of their carnivorous past. Writer and Director Simon Amstellasks us to forgive them for the horrors of what they...
Project 2025 Explained in Schoolhouse Rock Style!
5 min - The song that could save America. Share widely.Written, animated and performed by Jason KravitsProduced and mixed by Sean Dixon withJason Kravits, Christopher Walz, and Brian ONeill
Australian Comedian Perfectly Sums Up Why Other Countries Think US Gun Laws Are Crazy
14 min - At least 10 people were killed and 20 others injured when a shooter opened fire on the campus ofUmpqua Community Collegein Oregon Thursday, October 1. According to Douglas County Sheriff John...
Water is Love (2024)
61 min - Watch Now | Water is Love reveals the power of regenerative ecosystem design to create water retention in communities, villages, and regions. We touch upon traditional ecological knowledge, how...
Trending Articles
Videos Under Five Minutes
Cities are the Ideal Scale to Focus Solution-Efforts
Subscribe for $5/mo to Watch over 50 Patron-Exclusive Films
Subscribe $5/mo View All Patron Films

 

Your support keeps us ad-free and financially independent

Our 10,000+ video & article library is 99% free, ad-free, and entirely community-funded thanks to our patron subscribers!


Want to donate extra? You can subscribe and donate an extra $5/mo or more.