Presentation long abstract

Green transitions increasingly rely on technocratic environmental data to guide policy and justify conservation interventions. In the Buxa Tiger Reserve, India, the creation of human-free core zones for tiger protection has relied on state-generated ecological monitoring that frames forest-dependent communities as threats to biodiversity. This paper interrogates the politics of knowledge production in conservation, asking whose expertise is prioritized, whose voices are silenced, and how information systems shape access to resources. Using a mixed-methods approach combining livelihood surveys of relocated households and semi-structured interviews with women and men, this study documents how conservation-induced displacement and relocation disrupts subsistent livelihoods, alters social hierarchies, and constrains gendered agency. Findings reveal that official knowledge regimes reinforce patriarchal authority and marginalize local understandings of forest management. Women’s contributions to household economies and ecological stewardship are systematically overlooked in both planning and policy discourse. By contrasting state-generated environmental information with lived experiences of displacement, this research illustrates how technocratic knowledge functions as a tool of exclusion, legitimizing dispossession under the guise of ecological protection. The paper argues for alternative knowledge practices that integrate local and Indigenous expertise, emphasizing participatory, socially grounded approaches that can advance both ecological goals and environmental justice. Ultimately, it situates the Buxa case within the broader political ecology of green transitions, highlighting how inclusive knowledge governance is essential to equitable and just conservation.