Presentation short abstract

This paper traces the shifting meanings of the Singalila National Park (SNP) in the Eastern Himalayas from the colonial to the contemporary times through the entanglement of humans, non-humans, conservation of red panda, identity assertion and accumulation.

Presentation long abstract

The red panda (Ailurus fulgens) is a rare and magnificent species that has elicited immense conservation interest. It is also a mascot of regional identity in the Eastern Himalayas. This paper discusses the political, economic and cultural contestations around the red panda conservation in the Singalila National Park (SNP) in the Darjeeling Hills. The rewilding of the species by the Darjeeling Zoo in 2003 turned the SNP, once accessed by only pastoralists, trekkers and naturalists, into a tourism hotspot. The majestic view of Mount Kanchenjunga further adds to the attraction of visitors to the park. The erstwhile rugged trekking route is now easily approachable by vehicles and marked by the mushrooming of commercial homestays and cross-border mobility. Unlike many other national parks in the country that started off as game reserves in colonial times, SNP is one of the recent additions to the list of protected areas in India (Wildlife sanctuary in 1986 and national park in 1992). While the territorialisation of the SNP embodies post-colonial conservation enthusiasm and exclusion of the rural livelihood, it has also concomitantly fuelled new notions of property, tourism economy and regional identity politics in the Himalayan highland. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in and around the SNP between 2017 and 2020 and archival research, this paper traces the shifting meanings of the SNP from the colonial past to the contemporary times through the entanglement of human, non-humans, and conservation politics in making SNP a site for conservation, identity assertion and accumulation.