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The Namche Conference: May 24-26,
2003 Participants and Presentations:
Mr. Dhan Singh Rana |
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Dhan Singh Rana ( tharwa@rediffmail.com), Sunil Kainthola ( dhaar@vsnl.com), and Pratibha S. Naithani ( pratibha_sn@hotmail.com) Abstract: Struggle for community based conservation and equitable tourism in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve in India The presentation narrates the struggle of the Bhotia Tribal community residing in the buffer zone of the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (NDBR) in India and presents the desires of the community for asserting their legitimate rights over natural resources and in evolving a community based equitable tourism plan for their area. The Bhotia tribals have been struggling for over more than two decades to assert their traditional rights, which were taken away when the area was notified as a National Park in 1982. The Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve has been enlisted in the UNESCO's List of World Heritage Site for Natural Diversity. In November 2000, a separate mountain state of Uttaranchal was formed constituting the hill districts of the erstwhile Uttar Pardesh. Later the Uttaranchal government’s decision to send a team in May 2001 comprising of experts from the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) to Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve to explore the possibility of initiating limited tourism came as a bolt from the blue for the local communities still battling with the ban. The apprehensions of the people were justified when it was learnt that the Indian Mountaineering Foundation came with a singular objective of exploring possibilities for multinational backed travel agencies to step in order to monopolize tourism thus denying the locals their justified role. Apart from presenting the chronology of events and area specific plans, the presentation also raises some of the fundamental issues related to tourism in Uttaranchal. One important issue is related to the wilderness of the region, which is being marketed (read as a product) by the travel agencies world over. The assertion of rights over natural resources logically converges on a point where wilderness becomes a common property resource of the local communities. This understanding raises some of the basic questions on the nature of stakes of local communities in the mountain tourism business. As far as NDBR and other protected areas of Uttaranchal are concerned, the basic issue is not related to the involvement of the local communities in tourism but ownership of the locals on an equitable basis. The presentation ends with a call for indigenous solidarity on conservation and equity issues.
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