Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the ways in which indigenous communities in Wayanad, Kerala, South India, have experienced state control, law and forest governance over time. It shows how in this process human-forest relationships have been co-produced.

Paper long abstract:

We argue that the relationship between people and forests in the region can only be understood by closely looking at the repercussions of colonialism, authoritarian state control of forest resources, and the more recent history of forest governance, law, and conservation.

This paper engages ethnographically with the ways in which Adivasis of the Kattunaika community, traditionally hunters and gatherers, experience forest governance and how they remember transformations in the state's conservation regime over time. We will show how Kattunaikas' relationships to the forest change along with the political and legal environment, and how it effects their livelihoods. Presently, for example, a large scale rehabilitation project is under way to relocate forest dwellers from the Wildlife Sanctuary, which will radically alter human/forest relationships.

On the other hand, we highlight the role which Kattunaika and their knowledge of the forest's ecology have played in Wayanad's forest conservation regime. The British used their expertise for exploiting forest resources - Kattunaikka worked for low wages on the empire's timber plantations and as elephant mehouts. After independence, the Kerala forest department employed them as watchers in the forest, to report poaching cases and forest fires. Today in fact, most camp sheds inside the well guarded Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary are staffed with Kattunaika watchers.

By looking at the historically close connection and interrelationship of Kattunaika's with forest governance in Wayanad, much can be understood about their ways of relating to the forest and its ecology.