Siddhartha Krishnan - Conservation Landscapes and Human Well-Being

The Himalayas are said to be the youngest mountain ranges in the world. This book studies the well-being of the Eastern Himalayan forest dwellers in terms of their capabilities and functioning. Using Amartya Sens and Martha Nussbaums capabilities approach, it examines the educational and health opportunities and substantial freedoms afforded to farmers and pastoralists living and working in the Senchal and Singalila Protected Areas of North Bengal, India. It also discusses the challenges and potential of the Forest Rights Act as a well-being delivery mechanism. The book adopts a comparative narrative of socio-ecological information generated from interviews, ecological field methods, remote sensing and participatory rural appraisals to provide insight on human development in conservation contexts.

This volume will be of interest to students and researchers of conservation biology, development studies, socio-ecological systems studies, political ecology, human development index, ecological economics, environmental sociology and South Asian studies. It will also be useful to policy makers and NGOs in the conservation and livelihoods sector.

Siddhartha Krishnan is Associate Professor at Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Karnataka, India, and is affiliated to its Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation. He is the Convener of ATREEs Academy for Conservation Science and Sustainability Studies. His disciplinary and conceptual interests are in historicizing environmental sociology and sociologizing environmental history. He collects field and archival data to address questions pertaining to pastoral landscape and lifestyle transformations; human capabilities and ecosystem services; environmental justice; and modernity and development questions as they pertain to food, pesticide use and human health. He teaches sociology, environmental sociology and qualitative research methods in ATREEs PhD programme. He was Carson Fellow (20122013) at the Rachel Carson Center (RCC) for Environment and Society, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany. Between April 2015 and May 2019, he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Carson Society of Fellows. He was elected in April 2016 as a board member of the International Consortium of Environmental History Organizations.

Soubadra Devy is Associate Professor and former Co-Convener of the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation at Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Karnataka, India. Her research interests are in interactions between plants and animals, and developing a canopy programme for India through its Protected Areas network. She is also working on extending, through participatory community approaches, the biodiversity frontier to production landscapes. In 2006, for her treetop discoveries, she won the Lowell Thomas prize awarded by the Explorers Club and Rolex, USA. She also develops rigorous field conservation courses, which cater to various target audiences.

Neha Mohanty presently works as Education and Communication Officer at the Academy for Conservation and Sustainability Studies, ATREE, Karnataka, India. Her areas of interest comprise issues of violence and dispossession, local health traditions, sociology of agriculture and eco-social justice. She is also interested in exploring the impact on mental health of communities in stressful conservation contexts.

Series Editor: Sumi Krishna

Independent scholar, Bengaluru, India

The uniquely diverse landscapes, societies and cultures of northeastern India, forged through complex bio-geographic and socio-political forces, are now facing rapid transition. This series focuses on the processes and practices that have shaped, and are shaping, the peoples identities, outlook, institutions, and economy. Eschewing the homogenising term North East, which was imposed on the region in a particular political context half a century ago, the series title refers to the northeastern region to more accurately reflect its heterogeneity. Seeking to explore how the mainstream and the margins impact each other, the series foregrounds both historical and contemporary research on the region including the Eastern Himalaya, the adjoining hills and valleys, the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura. It publishes original, reflective studies that draw upon different disciplines and approaches, and combine empirical and theoretical insights to make scholarship accessible for general readers and to help deepen the understanding of academics, policy-makers and practitioners.

Rethinking Economic Development in Northeast India

The Emerging Dynamics

Edited by Deepak K. Mishra and Vandana Upadhyay

Legal Pluralism and Indian Democracy

Tribal Conflict Resolution Systems in Northeast India

Edited by Melvil Pereira, Bitopi Dutta and Binita Kakati

Conservation Landscapes and Human Well-Being

Sustainable Development in the Eastern Himalayas

Edited by Siddhartha Krishnan

Associate Editors: Soubadra Devy and Neha Mohanty

For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/Transition-in-Northeastern-India/book-series/TNI

Edited by Siddhartha Krishnan

Associate Editors: Soubadra Devy and Neha Mohanty

First published 2021

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2021 selection and editorial matter, Siddhartha Krishnan; individual chapters, the contributors

The right of Siddhartha Krishnan to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for his individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN: 978-1-138-31397-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-08359-7 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC

Siddhartha Krishnan

Siddhartha Krishnan and Neha Mohanty

Sourya Das, Annesha Chowdhury and Neha Mohanty

Soubadra Devy, Annesha Chowdhury, Abhishek Samrat and Sarala Khaling

Siddhartha Krishnan and Annesha Chowdhury

Siddhartha Krishnan and Sourya Das