This book tells us why we need to talk about the Andaman and Nicobar islands urgently
The little-known history of the islands is accessible and engrossing in campaigner Pankaj Sekhsaria’s ‘Islands in Flux’.
For over two decades, researcher and campaigner Pankaj
Sekhsaria has been writing about the state of environmental, social and
political affairs in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Islands in Flux: The Andaman and Nicobar Story brings
together the bulk of his reportage since 2000 on key issues affecting
the islands. Though this isn’t (as the author himself notes) a
comprehensive history of the islands in that time frame, it is a solid
beginning in understanding the unique conditions of an area whose
complexities are largely ignored by the mainland.
Sekhsaria is
quick to point out that the islands are misunderstood and
underrepresented in the Indian media. He refers to the “marginalisation
of the islands in the nation’s consciousness.” The original communities
of the islands are the Great Andamanese, the Onge, the Jarawa, and the
Sentinelese. In the early years of India’s independence, the government
devised a plan to colonise the islands. As a part of this plan,
thousands of settlers from the mainland were incentivised with land and
timber to settle in the island. The timber-rich forests were opened up
to exploitation. In the last century, which has seen unprecedented
population growth at the islands, approximately a 10th of the forested
land has been wiped out.
Island in danger
The
islands are home to unique flora and fauna which have been endangered
by aggressive developmental policies. In one of several examples, the
logging is noted to have threatened the populations of the saltwater
crocodile and the endemic wild pig. We learn that the islands are an
important nesting spot for turtles, including the giant leatherback
turtle which is critically endangered, which is threatened by sand
mining and a growing population of dogs.
The colonisation of the
islands by mainlanders has also had the effect of drastically
endangering and outnumbering the indigenous, tribal population.
Sekhsaria notes in one example:
In
the early 1960s, the Onge were the sole inhabitants of Little Andaman.
Today, for each Onge, there are at least 120 outsiders, and this
imbalance is rapidly increasing.
Of the first three
tribes mentioned above, the Jarawa tribe survived the onslaught of
forced development the longest. Sekhsaria narrates how their “hostility
and self-maintained isolation in the impenetrable rainforests” insulated
them from the changing times. But the construction of the Andaman Trunk
Road in the heart of their territory forced them to slowly abandon
their self-contained way of life.
One of the other themes explored in Islands in Flux
is the role of naming in colonisation. He points out that a singular
theory is popular on the mainland about the origin of the name Andaman –
that it comes from the Hindu figure of Hanuman – even though historical
accounts document various theories. He criticises the calls to rename
the islands after freedom fighters as dismissive of the identity and
history of the local tribes. The islands had already been re-christened
by the British. Sekhsaria says: “If the real and complete history of the
islands is ever written, the British would be no more than a page and
India could only be a paragraph.”
Sekhsaria takes us through the
complex journey of the islands in the last two decades. In response to a
distressing report on the state of the islands’ forests by a
court-appointed commission, the Supreme Court ruled that sand-mining
operations had to be phased out and the Andaman Trunk Road closed.
Outsiders versus insiders
But
as we read on, we discover that economic and political interests led to
a wilful non-compliance of these orders. Throughout the book, the
author highlights how the tribes’ interests are not protected, their
land and people exploited and how they are not consulted in policy
decisions.
He narrates the conflicts over land between the
settlers and the tribes. In particular, the story of the Jarawa people
is told in animated detail as small groups of them begin to unexpectedly
emerge from the territory they had earlier fiercely kept themselves to.
No one was allowed to enter their land, and they did not venture out
either until the late 90s. This tribe has dwindled to a meagre 250
individuals. As Sekhsaria puts it, for them it “is literally a struggle
for survival and against extinction.”
The little-known history of
the islands is accessible and engrossing in Sekhsaria’s sympathetic,
painstaking prose. Sekhsaria is hopeful that if change arrives, even at
this late juncture, it will save the tribes from extinction and the
islands from complete decimation. This is an important book for its
lessons on the environment, on India’s uneasy and problematic
relationship with some of its territories and on the implications of
forcing development and modernisation on indigenous communities.
The book is available in stores and via amazon: http://tinyurl.com/y9pnz9ml Islands in Flux: The Andaman and Nicobar Story, Pankaj Sekhsaria, Harper Collins.
Dear Friends,
Pls see below for the list of contents and the editorial from the new
issue of the Protected Area Update (Vol. XXIII, No. 5, October 2017 (No.
129). Click here to download the pdf of the issue
To receive the full issue as a pdf or as a print copy via
the post, please write to me at psekhsaria@gmail.com
I would also like to take this opportunity to request for your financial
support for the PA Update. Of the annual budget of about Rs. 7 lakhs
we've managed to raise only about half at the moment. All donations and
contributions, big and small, are welcome. Pls do consider helping us
out pls write to me at the above mentioned email id for any further
details that you might need.
Many thanks
Pankaj Sekhsaria
Editor, Protected Area Update
C/o Kalpavriksh
---
PROTECTED AREA UPDATE
News and Information from protected areas in India and South Asia
Vol. XXIII, No. 5
October 2017 (No. 129)
LIST OF CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
Systemic injuries, band-aid solutions
NEWS FROM INDIAN STATES
ASSAM
- SC asks for explanation on permission for oil and gas drilling beneath
Dibru-Saikhowa NP
- Eviction drive to remove encroachers from Amchang WLS
GOA
- Goa excluded from NGT’s Pune bench; activists condemn the move
GUJARAT
- Number of lions in Gir touches 650
HIMACHAL PRADESH
- Biodiversity management committees set up in 366 gram panchayats
JHARKHAND
- Government approves diversion of 1000 ha land from Palamau TR
- Palamau TR brings captive sambars to increase tigers’ prey base
KARNATAKA
- Kali TR to lose 75% of its ESZ; state bows to public pressure
- Policy for private conservancies for wildlife conservation adjoining PAs
- Over 3000 families displaced from Nagarahole NP to be rehabilitated;
NGO express concern over implementation of plan
- Stop to illegal electrification work in Bhimgad WLS
- New management plan for otter conservation in Tungabhadra
KERALA
- Institute for Western Ghats wildlife research
- Survey records over 120 species of amphibians and reptiles in Periyar TR
- 58 tigers in Periyar and Parambikulam TRs
- 400+ families relocated from Wayanad WLS
- Two new species of earthworm discovered in Western Ghats
MAHARASHTRA
- NHAI to build only one wildlife underpass near Tipeshwar WLS
- High-level committee to decide about tiger translocation
ODISHA
- Advance payment for human kills by wildlife
RAJASTHAN
- NBWL denotifies over 400 ha of forest from buffer of Ranthambhore TR
for mining
TAMIL NADU
- 60 Irular families evicted from buffer zone of Mudumalai TR
TELANGANA
- NBWL diverts tiger corridor for irrigation project; asks for 16
eco-bridges to avoid fragmentation
UTTAR PRADESH
- Build toilets to curb human-tiger conflict in Pilibhit: Chief Minister
NATIONAL NEWS FROM INDIA
- Tiger cell at WII gets three years extention
- Over 27,000 wild elephants in India; highest number of 6,049 in Karnataka
- Over 15% of species in India threatened: IUCN
- Dr. Mahesh Sharma takes charge as Minister of State in MoEFCC
- Centre seeks Supreme Court’s approval for cheetah re-introduction
- One person killed a day in wildlife attacks in India
- 12 important mangroves forests of the country identified
- Exotic species invading PAs: Minister
- Meeting held to discuss, curb wildlife trafficking using postal services
- SC asks Centre to consider suggestions on safe corridors for wild animals
- Eurasian otter presence confirmed in the trans-Himalayas
- Finance Act dilutes the NGT Act says Jairam Ramesh; SC issues notice
to Centre
- Inclusion of Net Present Value of diverted forest in
cost-benefit-analysis mandatory; - - - NPV to be 10 and five times more
than normal for NP and WLS respectively
- NGT asks MoEFCC to prepare a policy for prevention of forest fires
- More than 700 projects awaiting environmental clearance: Minister
- SC questions Centre over reduction of ESZ by 100 times
SOUTH ASIA
Nepal/India
- 50 rhino calves swept away from Nepal to India; eight returned
IMPORTANT BIRD AREAS UPDATE
MANIPUR
- Call to decommission the Ithai dam
RAJASTHAN
- Openbill storks abandon nesting in Keoladeo NP because of water shortage
A DECADE AGO
PERSPECTIVE
Why I care about the KBR National Park?
--
EDITORIAL
'Systemic injuries, band-aid solutions'
Even a quick survey of the conservation scenario in the country today
makes one thing rather crystal clear – that the imperatives of
conservation cannot (will not!) be allowed to come in the way of
industrialization projects and economic growth. This, in fact, has
become the defining narrative, and PAs are more in the news for policy
that is constantly being diluted to make clearances and permissions
easier; for railway lines, roads and canals that will cut through
forests and other habitat; and for land in PAs (and elsewhere too) being
made available for mining, dams, and infrastructure projects.
We have in this issue of the PA Update, like we’ve always had in the
past, a number of such examples: of the National Green Tribunal (NGT)
being undermined by structural change, of land around tiger reserves
like Ranthambhore and Palamau being made available for mining and dam
projects and of linear intrusions being approved in PAs in Maharashtra
and Telangana.
There are two different kinds of narratives that seek to justify these
developments. The first and the more blatant one articulates explicitly
that PAs, environmental regulation and such concerns are impediments in
the ‘development’ of the country. The other is the more confused and
self-contradictory one. It pretends to be concerned even as it goes
about its job of undermining precisely these concerns.
If offers, in cities for example, to transplant full-grown trees because
roads have to be widened and growth in vehicle population cannot be
questioned; it claims to be concerned about climate change even as it
pushes the economy towards a larger emission load; and it allows for
linear intrusions like power lines, roads and canals to splice through
PAs and then offers underpasses and over bridges so that wild animals
can cross over. We have very little idea of how the underpasses and
bridges for animals will actually work, if they work at all, but caught
up in the belief that we can have the cake even as we eat it, we are
willing to go along with these solutions.
We are being enticed and dissuaded by band-aid solutions when the
injuries being inflicted are systemic and deep. The price to pay will
also be very high!
===
Protected Area Update
Vol. XXIII, No. 5, October 2017 (No. 129)
Editor: Pankaj Sekhsaria
Editorial Assistance: Reshma Jathar, Anuradha Arjunwadkar
Illustrations: Ashvini Menon, Mayuri Kerr, Shruti Kulkarni,
Madhuvanti Anantharajan & Peeyush Sekhsaria
Produced by The Documentation and Outreach Centre
KALPAVRIKSH
Apartment 5, Shri Dutta Krupa, 908 Deccan Gymkhana, Pune 411004,
Maharashtra, India.
Tel/Fax: 020 – 25654239
Email: psekhsaria@gmail.com
Website:
http://kalpavriksh.org/index.php/conservation-livelihoods1/protected-area-update
Publication of the PA Update has been supported by
Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) http://fes.org.in/
Duleep Matthai Nature Conservation Trust, C/o FES
Donations from a number of individual supporters
------
--
Pankaj Sekhsaria, PhD
Senior Project Scientist, DST-Centre for Policy Research, Dept of
Humanities and Social Science, IIT- Delhi
Author, 'Islands in Flux - the Andaman and Nicobar Story' (HarperCollins
India, March 2017) & 'The Last Wave - An Island Novel' (HarperCollins
India, 2014)
Also, member, Kalpavriksh Environment Action Group
---
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pankaj.sekhsaria
twitter: https://twitter.com/pankajsekh
For the
longest time, the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, rich with rare
endemic wildlife remained on my wish list, inaccessible due to expense
and distance. It was only in early 2005 that I made my way there to
report the aftermath of the tsunami. The visit was turbulent – the
island was reeling with the massive destruction unleashed, and a
profound sense of loss. My brief stay was an unsettling mix of the
exquisite and the tragic: my first, bewitching sight of the coral
wonderland, walking the rich, riotous — and diminishing — rainforests
that clothe the emerald islands, witnessing dead bodies being unearthed
from under flattened homes and trees even three weeks post the tsunami,
and the heartbreaking, haunting encounter with a once-proud people, the
Jarawas, running after our vehicle, arms outstretched for a packet of
biscuits. The cost of dignity, priced Rs 4.
The tsunami, I
gathered, was one among the many storms — none so pronounced — the
islands had been battered by, their violence gradual, but no less
virulent.
It
is this steady invasion of the island, of its people, cultures and
ecology, so that its original identity is subsumed that journalist and
researcher Pankaj Sekhsaria has meticulously chronicled over the past
two decades and brings together in the Islands of Flux. He calls it —
bluntly and boldly, a colonization. The exploitation of the islands was
started by the British who systematically logged the great forests for
timber, unmindful of the animals and plants they housed, and the tribes
that depended on it — an agenda followed with “clinical efficiency by a
modern, independent India.” After 200 years of tyranny by a colonial
power that fattened itself on the back of its people, land and
resources, India gained freedom only to itself emerge as a colonizer. In
the late 1960s, the Government of India had an official plan in place
to “colonise” the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
This is the subtext
that runs through the book, a collection of Sekhsaria’s articles,
published in different newspapers and magazines. The pieces give
insights into the islands — there are 572 in all, with only 36 being
inhabited — their environment, wildlife, indigenous people, the influx
of mainlanders, and their idea of development.
Massive
deforestation took away from the tribals their means of sustenance. The
consequent soil erosion killed live coral and marine life. The other
onslaught was from settlers from mainland India — they encroached on and
cleared the jungles, brought in disease, alcoholism, industry, and an
economy alien to the local cultures. They ridiculed the Onges, the Great
Andamanese and other tribal people — isolated for millennia — as
‘uncivilized’, making them outsiders in the land they belong to. Their
numbers dwindled, and were soon vastly outnumbered. From instance, from
being the sole inhabitants of Little Andaman, there are today over 120
outsiders for each Onge.
This exploitative vision has only
worsened with successive governments, who have given a thrust to ports,
industrial infrastructure and tourism, including inside sanctuaries and
tribal reserves. Coastal and environment norms are being tweaked to
accommodate these.
No contemporary record of the islands can be
complete without the tsunami, which shifted the very geography of the
islands. Sekhsaria delves on these wounds and suggests other
far-reaching consequences one of which is escalating military activity.
Owing to its strategic location — far from mainland India and close to
Myanmar, and Indonesia, the archipelago has always been of strategic
importance, serving as a launching pad and a look out post. Post
tsunami, there was a flurry of defence activity and proposals. The
Brahmos missile, test-fired on one of the remote islands, made news in
March 2008. Other controversial proposals include a missile-firing
testing system that would endanger the ground nesting of the endemic
Nicobar megapode in the Tillanchong Sanctuary and a RADAR station in the
only home of the Narcondam Hornbill on Narcondam Island.
The
problem in this vision of development, a view of the islands as a
military and economic colony is that it fails to consider the fragile
ecology and the vulnerable indigenous communities. “The islands has
always only existed on the margins of the consciousness of the nation.
Did the earthquake and tsunami further ratify the fringeness of the
fringe, allowing for experimentation, explosions and targeting in the
interests of the Centre?” asks Sekhsaria.
The writing is elegant,
the pen compassionate, the vision clear, even if the book is hampered by
the fact that it is a collection of reports, hence lacking flow, and
with a few overlaps across reports.
That apart, Islands of flux
is an important book, providing a unique document from a region that
rarely features in the mainstream media, and in dialogues in faraway
Delhi. Even more lacking is an understanding of its unique wildlife,
forests, people, culture and the intricate link between these, which the
author writes of with finesse. This book is particularly relevant as
the country sees mounting tensions from other such ‘colonies’ in the
hinterland, where farmers, fisherfolk and tribal people are up in arms
against the juggernaut of development: mines, ports, power plants,
industries that erode ecology that sustains them, and a way of life.
The writer tackles this complex, nuanced subject with sensitivity and an insight backed with his years on the ground.
I
hope that the book will bring the islands closer to the state that
rules it but fails to serve it, and to tourists who visit it, unseeing
and uncaring of their footprint. I know I need to visit again, to see
the island with eyes anew.
In his new book, Pankaj Sekhsaria continues his analysis on complex
issues that put the beautiful Andaman and Nicobar islands in a state of
flux
--
‘Islands in Flux – the Andaman and Nicobar Story’ (HarperCollins
India; ₹399) is a collection of writings by researcher Pankaj Sekhsaria
over two decades, many of them published in mainstream media including The Hindu.
While a collection of fictional works might be of nostalgic value or
help analyse the evolution of a writer’s style and thought processes
over time, this compilation aims to educate and inform readers of the
history, geology and ecology of the earthquake-prone islands.
Hyderabad-based
Pankaj Sekhsaria, who unveiled his book in the city recently, first
visited the islands in 1994-95 on a friend’s invitation. An avid
photographer with an interest in wildlife, environment and conservation,
he travelled extensively between the islands of the archipelago for two
months. Since then, he has gone back several times and chronicled the
changes and conflicts in the island.
When we begin to talk, he
puts things in perspective on the need for this compilation: “As a
researcher or an activist, you have a sense of the history of a place
and its issues and you see things coming back in circles. There is
enough information out there — be it on development, ecology or about
the indigenous people. But issues crop up and you feel the need to
respond and react, though it feels repetitive since you’ve already
written about it. In a sense, it feels like being on treadmill — running
in the same place,” he says.
A keen observer of events in the
islands, he observes how those in authority, irrespective of the
political party, announce development projects as though starting on a
clean slate, but oblivious to the ramifications. Seismic activity
In
the islands, Sekhsaria explains, geological activity is a crucial
factor. “The Andaman and Nicobar islands are among the most seismically
active zones in the world, with earthquakes occurring even twice a
month. The earthquake measuring 9.3 on the Richter scale that triggered
the tsunami of 2004 happened off the Sumatra coast, which is 100km off
the Nicobar, and caused huge damage. A decade later, new development
projects haven’t taken into account the geological, socio cultural and
ecological components of the islands. Indigenous people who’ve been
there for 30000 to 40000 years are part of the unique ecology. A
characteristic of the islands is the high endemism — plants, animals,
birds and butterflies not found anywhere else,” he points out.
Having highlighted various issues pertaining to the islands through his ‘Faultline’ column in The Hindu,
Sekhsaria hopes his writings will raise awareness. He feels the islands
need plans that understand its seismic activity and the inherent risks,
while also factoring in the presence of indigenous tribes and forest
areas that need to be conserved. By not having a deeper understanding of
the issues at hand, he feels projects might increase the “vulnerability
of both the tribals and around 400,000 settlers from mainland who live
modern lives like any of us.” Living in denial
To
cite an example, he talks about the union home minister’s (Rajnath
Singh) visit to the islands this summer. “A delegation of farmers from
Port Blair met him to request compensation for their lands that were
submerged following the tsunami of 2004. On another day, there was a
tourism delegation requesting relaxation of CRZ (Coastal Regulation
Zone). The 2004 tsunami raised some parts of Andamans by 4ft while
sinking parts of Nicobar by 15ft. If there are tourism-driven properties
closer to the coast, aren’t they also vulnerable? We have to
acknowledge the risks and think of a solution; we can’t live in denial.”
Over the years, Sekhsaria has interacted with people and
organisations working on environmental conservation and education in the
islands.
Writing or holding talks are his way of increasing the
dialogue. “The least I can do is talk or write so that there’s a counter
narrative,” he states.
Sekhsaria draws attention to how every now
and then, political parties toy with renaming some of the islands or
their landmarks. “The islands have a complex history — the first war of
independence, kalapani and colonisation. Some may argue in favour of
renaming the colonial-sounding names after Indian freedom fighters. But
the islands have a history longer than that of colonisation; there are
original names given by indigenous people,” he states.
As a
parting thought, he states that even if some of the writings in this
book have been more than a decade ago, it assumes more relevance today.
The author’s previous books on the islands: The Last Wave – an island novel (HarperCollins India; 2014) The Jarawa Tribal Reserve Dossier – Cultural and Biological Diversity in the Andaman Islands (UNESCO and Kalpavriksh; 2010)
The book ‘Islands In Flux’, released recently in the city which explores the story of Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Aasheesh Pittie and Pankaj Sekhsaria.
Photo: N Shiva Kumar Meru
Ornithologist Aasheesh Pittie launched the book ‘Islands In Flux’
written by Pankaj Sekhsaria, researcher and author, recently at
Goethe-Zentrum, Banjara Hills.
The book features the information,
insight, and perspective related to the environment, wildlife
conservation, development and the indigenous communities and
contemporary issues in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
It provides an important account that
is relevant both for the present and the future of these beautiful and
fragile Island but also very volatile Island chain.
Pankaj Sekhsaria said, “It is not new
for me to write about Islands and it this is my collection of writings
about Andaman and Nicobar Islands. These islands are far away from India
but they are part of it. The islands have various kind of animals,
birds and more.”
Pankaj Sekhsaria said that everybody
started talking about these Islands after the Tsunami in 2004. “Today
our oceans are filling up with a lot of plastic. Many scientists are
fearful that our oceans will have more plastic than fish in 2050,” added
Pankaj.
He informed that no government has
taken care of the tribal people of these Islands since independence. “No
one is concerned about the tribal people, who have been living there
for more than 40,000 years. In 1956, these Islands are declared for the
tribal, but no one is taking care of them,” he adds.
Pankaj hopes that his book will create awareness in people about these Islands.
One
of the most significant trends visible in wildlife conservation and
management today is the increased use of ‘technology’. Camera traps, for
instance, have provided new evidence of tiger presence in the Mhadei
Wildlife Sanctuary in Goa and of the Asiatic wildcat in Bandhavgarh,
Madhya Pradesh; radio collars have helped solve the mystery of tiger
deaths in Bandipur in Karnataka and Chandrapur district of Maharashtra;
and satellite telemetry promises to provide new insights into the
behaviour and movement patterns of the Great Indian Bustard in Gujarat,
which includes its journeys across the border to Pakistan. New software
and sophisticated surveillance technologies are being operationalised to
keep an eye on developments across large landscapes and the use of
contraceptives has been suggested to contain runaway populations of
animals ranging from the monkey in large parts of India to the elephant
in Africa.
Within easy reach
We may not be able
to escape such a technology-based framing, but is it possible that the
current set of technologies, like those mentioned earlier, are
profoundly different from those of the earlier era? And is the change
that we are seeing, therefore, a more fundamental one?
What these
innovations appear to do is increase our proximity to the subject of our
interest and of our investigation. Surveillance technologies are
bringing distant and topographically complex landscapes right into our
homes and offices so that they can be observed and monitored without
moving an inch. More individual wild animals are perhaps being caught
and handled today than has ever happened earlier. And then there are
various levels of physical intrusion that these sentient beings are
subjected to — be it a microchip in the tail, a radio collar around its
neck or a contraceptive injected into its body, not to mention the
sedation that most of these individuals are forced into to enable such
intrusions.
Technology has always allowed us deeper access into
and control over our environment; in many ways it has been key in the
human conquest over nature. And yet there are some things — a ferocious
large cat or a free flying bird or a deep-sea mammal — that had still
seemed out of reach. They were wild, defined as an animal ‘living or
growing in the natural environment; not domesticated or cultivated’.
They were wild and therefore inaccessible or inaccessible, therefore
wild. Technology is closing that gap and it is the very idea of the
‘wild’ and ‘wilderness’ that comes into focus in important public
initiatives such as conservation and protection of biodiversity. How
wild or natural, for instance, is an animal that cannot perform its
fundamental biological function of procreation because it has been
sterilised by human intervention? Is a tiger that has been sedated
multiple times and now carries a radio collar as ‘wild’ a tiger as one
that has never been photographed, sedated or collared? How wild is a
wilderness where everything has been mapped, where everything is known
and where all movement is tracked in real time?
Aesthetic and ethical issues
The
matter here is both aesthetic and ethical. The basic pleasures of
enjoying the wild are essentially technology mediated intrusions (think
binoculars and cameras) into the private lives of animals that the human
species does not allow in its own case. Aldo Leopold pointed out, for
instance, to the role of the automobile, and the dense construction of
roads to accommodate them, as central to the emergence of wilderness
areas in 19th century United States. Does the radio collar go only a
step further, or is there a fundamental shift here? One could argue that
this collar is a signifier of further human dominance and authority
over the wild animal if not complete control. A photograph of a collared
tiger is unlikely to win an award in a wildlife photography context
just as an encounter with a collared animal is unlikely to evoke the
same experience of thrill because the element of surprise will have been
removed. The issue is one that goes to the very heart of the notion of
the ‘wild’ and of ‘wilderness’, marking as it does a paradigm shift in
our relationship to and understanding of wildlife.
This is not an
esoteric matter because it has a direct bearing on the agenda of
conservation; it is the conservation of this ‘wild’ life that we are
talking about after all. If we agree that technologies and technological
interventions are bringing about fundamental changes in the identities
and essence of wild subjects, it follows that current ideologies and
methods of conservation will also have to change.
Are we willing
to characterise wilderness areas as glorified theme parks? Are attempts
at conservation then just routes to manage these slippery slopes? If
this is not an appropriate aesthetic or ethical stance, then how do we
think of the ubiquitous use of high technology to shape wilderness, and
to intrude into ‘wild’ bodies, even as they are used in the name of
protecting them?
Pankaj
Sekhsaria and Naveen Thayyil are researchers at the DST-Centre for
Policy Research, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences,
IIT-Delhi. The views expressed are personal
The book is available in stores and via amazon: http://tinyurl.com/y9pnz9ml
