Housing of tribes living inside Nagarahole destroyed by elephants.

Protected Areas play crucial role in conserving nature while on the other hand they have totally or largely excluded forest dependent communities from accessing forests. The strict regulations and prohibitions set out by the conservation policies in India on the use and access of forest resources, in some cases, have necessitated relocation of forest dwellers from these areas which affects the their livelihood. In India, thousands of people have been relocated for conservation projects in the past fifty years where tribal communities constitute majority of this relocated population making them most affected by these projects.

Construction underway in a relocation colony outside the reserve.

On the other hand, India's Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006 now provides rights to forest dwellers over forests for habitation, use and access. Both, relocation and FRA thus influence the life and livelihood of tribals living in forest areas.

Also, implementation of these policies is highly dependent on the practices and interpretations of these policies by different actors involved as well as the dynamics between them. The study thus aims to examine the implementation and influence of conservation induced relocation and FRA on the livelihood of forest dwelling tribal communities in Nagarhole Tiger Reserve in India.

This study is proposing to present the socio-political aspects of conservation to showcase how local dynamics between different actors; and the socio-political conditions influence policy implementation and how these policies thus affect the livelihood of local population as well as conservation efforts.