Siruvattukadu Kombai:A Conservation Strategy in theWestern Ghats and Palni Hills

CYNTHIA CARON

TAMILNADU, India June 1995

"...where this cursed modern civilization has not reached, Indiaremains as it was before. The inhabitants of that part of India willvery properly laugh at your new-fangled notions. The English donot rule over them, nor will you ever rule over them Those inwhose name we speak we do not know, nor do they know us. Iwould certainly advise you and those like you who love the moth-erland to go into the interior that has yet been not polluted by therailways and to live there for six months; you might then be patri-otic..."

Mahatma Gandhi wrote this in 1909 to defend Home Rule and tocriticize modern civilization. agree. There is just something aboutliving in a rural village enclosed by a thick forest that pierces theheart and makes one yearn for and reflect on an India that isvanishing.

The past five months have based myself in Kodaikanal. Thissummer resort in the Palni Hills is a far cry from the interior thatGandhi described. The village where have been conducting my re-search, however, still holds many of the attributes of Gandhi’s inter-ior village. Kombai is not polluted by railways, diesel-poweredscooters or electronic media. The villagers are poor, but cannot statewith certainty that they have been "dissuaded [as their ancestors]from luxuries and pleasures." To facilitate the marketing of their ag-ricultural produce, villagers request that a proper road be built con-necting their settlement to the main road. Women want electricpower to replace their manual bucket method for collecting drinkingwater out of the main well with a pump. Furthermore, they think itwould be nice to hang a light bulb by a colorfully encased wire overthe stove so they can see better while cooking meals at night. Dimflashlights, kerosene lamps that emit a smoke as toxic-smelling andthick as burning automobile tires, or the cooking fire itself illuminateone-room huts at night. You will not find a school immediate health-care or credit facility, running water (in our Western-faucet sense), apowered sewing machine, gas stove, pillow and mattress or sanita-tion in Kombai.

The villagers’ requests for a road and electricity are complicatedby the fact that their settlement is located within a government-managed Reserved Forest. Despite well-known corruption withinthe Forest Department, civil servants working in the area doubt thatelectricity will be installed. To do so would mean clearing forest fornon-forestry purposes an activity that is strictly forbidden, theysay. Without receiving permission from the Forest Department,someone (villagers claim that it was local Forest Department offi-

Cynthia Caron is a John Miller Musser Fellow of the Institute studyingforestconservation in South Asia.

cials) already has constructed a lorry-wide road intoKombai. The slopes leading into and surroundingKombai are too steep for roads and mechanized log-ging The road is a boulder field carved up by soil-eroding gullies. Neither a four-wheeled-drive vehiclenor a lorry can successfully enter the settlement. Evenpack horses have a difficult time picking their waythrough.

When heard people requesting such infrastruc-ture, asked myself if these desires are in fact the"pleasures and luxuries" that Gandhi claimed weredestroying India. As sat on the stairs of the elevatedA-frame bamboo hut where lived during my fieldwork, often thought that in many ways Kombai is aterrific place just the way it is. As if know best; thetruth is suffer from "idyllic-village" syndrome.

The silence of Kombai is striking. An axe chopswood. Chickens scratch the hardened soil through alayer of dried and crumpled leaf litter. A dog growlsat a passerby who approaches too close to its domain.Screeching tropical birds glide overhead. The hoovesof hobbled horses strike the ground with a dull thud.They struggle to graze. Three of their four legs aretied together to restrict their grazing area. These arethe sounds that slice through the humidity in the air.

My virus is short-lived. The reality was struggledalong with everyone else when hoisted up fourbuckets of water from the common well to fill anotherlarger pail for my daily bath. was lucky. The wellwater is for drinking and watering the seedlings atthe local bee nursery. No one uses this water for bath-ing except for me. Everyone bathes with the waterbuffaloes in the foul-smelling, less-than-ankle-deepriver that flows through the village. was grateful tobe granted clean water. too had to haul four weeks’worth of rice, oil, tea, sugar, salt, flour, vegetables anddhal for over an hour in the mid-day sun. The sweatstung my eyes. My back ached for days. thinkwould have done just about anything for a vehicle atthe time.

knew did not have to live in Kombai forever.knew that the sore back woke up with in the morningfrom sleeping on the hard floor would go away oncesank into my mattress back in my Kodai bungalow.Agricultural labor is difficult. The midday sun isscorching. Unless you win one of the many daily lot-teries the prospect of getting ahead, financially at least,is bleak. It is unlikely that children will attend secon-dary school for at least another two generations. Eve-ryone recognizes, however, that life is better here thanit is in any of the district’s shanty towns along the rail-way tracks. In Kombai there is a cool breeze, grass andvegetable gardens, privacy if one wants it, and a clearmidnight sky full of stars. may find many of the par-ticulars of village life idyllic, but cannot stop thechange that people desire. Part of my aspiration as anenvironmental and natural resource manager is to con-

sider what options for "appropriate change exist re-gardless of whether that change is to conserve or toconvert. Above all I try to remain realistic and con-stantly remind myself to be objective recognize that"anyone who studies village life is bound to be influ-enced by his own personal ink interests and culturalvalues" (Critchfield, 1981).

As my time in the Plan Hills comes to an end, con-sider this newsletter an exercise to put into perspec-tive the work that have done and what foresee asthe future threats and obstacles to forest conservationin Kombai. If the Palni Hills Conservation Council(PHCC) lobbies the Tamilnadu government success-fully, then Kombai and its surroundings will be des-ignated, managed, and protected as a wildlife sanctu-ary. Protected areas must fulfill the aspirations ofthose living within and around them. Compromise,appropriate alternatives, and continuous communica-tion with residents may fulfill both their desires for aroad and electricity

Western Ghats and the Palni Hills ofTamilnadu

Tamilnadu lies southeast of the Deccan plateau thatends in Karnataka. The waters of the Bay of Bengalcrash on its eastern shore and the waters of the IndianOcean on it southern shore. The chain of mountainsknown as the Western Ghats gently bend from thenorth to the southeast and run parallel to the ArabianSea extending from Maharashtra to the very tip of In-dia in Tamilnadu (Figure 1, page 3).

The historian Subrahmanian (1973) writes that thehills (Western Ghats) of Tamilnadu existed millionsof years before the Gangetic valley and the Himalayatook their present shape. To put this in historical per-spective, the fault plains of the Nilgiri hills in Tamil-nadu (NW of the Palnis) suggest that substantial tec-tonic activity took place in the region in the lateJurassic period (160-210 million years ago). Their sen-iority bestows neither the prestige nor the interna-tional recognition received by their northern Hima-layan cousins (60 million years ago).

Certain habitat types containing endemic speciesand Pleistocene refugia remain poorly represented inSouth and South-East Asian regional conservationstrategies. India is one of a dozen countries consid-ered "megadiversity countries." Megadiversity coun-tries are those nations that account for a high percent-age of the world’s biodiversity. This status is basedon the total number of species and the levels of en-demism contained within nation-state boundaries(McNeeley et al., 1990). According to the Indo-Malayan Review (MacKinnon and MacKinnon, 1986),the Western Ghats is one of nine major gaps in theprotected area system of the entire region. (Anotherregion is the Himalayan region of Bhutan wherespent the earlier part of my fellowship.) Scientists and

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naturalists in South and West India would be de-lighted if the international agencies and governmentministries in New Delhi shifted some of their focusand their funding from the Himalaya to the WesternGhats.

B.H. Baden-Powell described the Western Ghats ofsouthern India in 1892 as lofty and clothed with ever-green forest. "This country is undulating, composedof laterite ridges intersected by the deep-soiled val-leys of the streams coming down from the hills...Above, rise the main slopes of the Ghats with denseevergreen forest on the ridge" (Pouchepadass, 1995)).

Through remote sensing from satellite (LANDSAT)imagery, scientists estimate that during the ten-yearperiod 1972-1982, 190,000 km2 of forest cover in theWestern Ghat states of Tamilnadu, Kerala, Karnatakaand Maharashtra were cut-over. Approximately one-half of Tamilnadu’s forest cover is found in the West-ern Ghats. Madhavan Unni and Naidu (1988) foundthat during this same decade Tamilnadu lost approxi-mately 4048 km2 of forest cover. These same techni-cians conducted a separate case study of the 1100 km2

Kodaikanal region. During the next five years (1982-1987), 9 km2 of forest was converted into shrub landor agriculture. Fourteen square kilometers of naturalgrassland was re-planted with plantation speciessuch as eucalyptus and wattle. Changes in land useare no less threatening to ecosystem integrity and bio-diversity than deforestation.

The 87-kilometers-long and 24-kilometers-wide Pal-nis cover an area of 2400 km2 and range in altitudefrom 300 to 2500 meters. Their western border is con-tiguous with the border of Kerala. For a few kilome-ters along the northern slopes, the Palnis share a com-mon border with the Annamalai Wildlife Sanctuaryof Tamilnadu’s Annamalai range (Figures 2 and 3).

Palni derives its name from the pilgrim town calledPalani that lies just to its north. In ancient Sanskrit thehills are referred to as the Varahagiris or "pig-hills."According to legend 12 children in the area poked funat a rishi (a holy Hindu saint or inspired poet) livingin the forest. In his anger the rishi transformed themall into pigs. Lord Shiva rescued the children, re-stored them to their natural form and installed themas kings in the plains of Tamilnadu. The Tamil equiv-alent of "pig-hills" is Panri-malai. Palani or Palni isthought to be a corrupted version. The British oftenreferred to the territory as the Pulney Hills.

The Palnis are divided along an east-west axis thatstratifies them into two distinct elevational areas: theupper Palnis and the lower Palnis. The lower Palnisrange in height from 300m to 1500m. Characterized asa "confused jumble of peaks" it was here in 1846 thatM. Emile de Fondclair first planted coffee. The area isprime agricultural land for other crops includingpaddy, turmeric, ginger, cardamom, tamarind,

mango, orange, and lime. The Kunnuvans were theprincipal land owners, the Pulaiyars the principle la-boring caste. The British did not consider the inhabi-tants here as hillmen "in the strict sense of the word."

The upper Palnis range in elevation from 1500m to2500m. American and British missionaries establishedKodaikanal on a plateau of coarse grass overlookingthe Palnis’ southern edge. At these higher elevationsravines and valleys were fewer, forest cover thicker,and the climate colder. As on the lower slopes thepopulation was mainly comprised of Kunnavans witha "few of the wild Paliyans." The principal crops in-cluded barley, wheat, garlic, coffee, and rice.

There are two hilly areas of Tamilnadu consideredto be of extreme botanical importance: the Palnis(which includes both Kodnaikanal and Kombai) andthe Sirumalais of Madurai district. One of the earliestbotanical explorers of the Palnis was Dr. RobertWright in 1836. He wrote:

"In the course of about 15 days, collected lit-tle short of 500 species of plants, and withoutany attempt on my part to preserve specimensof all the plants in flower or fruits in this sea-son, many being rejected merely because wasnot in want of specimens. It did not, in short,occur to me at this time, which it has since, tocompare the vegetable production of thesehills with the recorded ones of the countrygenerally as think were a somewhat per-fect collection formed, it would be found tocontain a number of species amounting to onehalf to four-fifths of the whole peninsula flora,as far as we are yet acquainted with it, and topresent a vast number of species peculiar tothemselves" (in Viraraghavan, 1988).

Less than 15 years later another botanist listed over700 species from the Palnis, excluding grasses. In suc-

ceeding decades, floral enthusiasts would document4 new genera, 95 new species, 15 new varieties ofgrass and 19 endemic flowering plants. This geneticdiversity was and continues to be threatened by theintroduction of exotic-species plantations and thepoaching of valuable hardwoods such as teak, rose-wood, sandalwood and ebony. The Indian ecologistB.B. Vohra declared, "After Independence, formida-ble mafia based on the triangular alliance between thecorrupt bureaucrat, the corrupt politician and the cor-rupt businessman emerged in all states, and became amost powerful threat to the conservation of the coun-try’s tree cover" (ibid).

Forest management in the Palni Hills falls underthe jurisdiction of officials in Kodaikanal and Dindi-gul taluk (A taluk is a small administrative unit of adistrict) of Anna district. Over the last 120 years, ap-proximately 55% of the Palnis’ natural vegetationhas been converted into commercial plantations of

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blue gum, pine, wattle and coffee. Of the remaining45%, a large portion is managed by the state as Re-served Forest. Other patches of natural vegetationare small, often degraded and isolated within an arti-ficial landscape.

Protecting the native vegetation and conservingforest cover is not new to the Palnis. The British im-plemented "conservation-oriented" policies to putforth their own agenda. Their first "conservation ini-tiatives" began in 1852 with the requirement of per-mits to fell timber. Prior to this anyone was allowedto fell timber anywhere without restriction. In 1854new laws again changed access to the Palnis’ forestresources for both British timber merchants and theresidents of her forests.

Hill people were forbidden to collect honey, gums,resins and other forest products that they were accus-tomed to collecting for both themselves and the forestdepartment. A substantial conflict arose over banningthe collection of gall nuts (fruits of Terminalia chebula)for the tanning industry. (Although by 1914 gall nutwas replaced by the chrome process of tanning whichreduced the income generated per annum fromRs.15,000 to Rs.2,000.) The loss of this revenue forcedforestry staff to charge for the initially-free timber-felling permits. The most valuable native forest treespecies are teak (Tectona g’andis), rosewood (Dalbergialatifolia), red cedar (Cedrelta toona), Pterocarpus marsu-pium, and Vitex altissima. The expansion of the Empirein India was based to a large extent on the revenuegenerated by and the infrastructure establishedthrough these species (Francis, 1906; Gadgil andGuha, 1993).

In 1856 the administration forbade plantain (a ba-nana-like, starchy fruit) cultivation in the Lower Pal-nis. British forestry officers disliked this practice, aform of slash-and-burn agriculture, because "theabandoned clearings hardly ever produced good for-est again." The British viewed this indigenous form ofcultivation, known as kumri, as "... one [of] so waste-ful and improvident a nature that it ought not tobe tolerated except in a very wild and unpeopledcountry." The kumri cultivator was considered theone who "recklessly felled and burned [the forest] forthe purpose of obtaining one or two scanty crops ofdry grain" (Pouchepadass, 1995:132). Banning kumricultivation was for the good of the people. "It appearscertainly to retard the improvement of the forestraces." Placin the kumri cultivator under the yoke ofsettled agriculture would undoubtedly make him"more civilized." Were the hazards of kumri cultiva-tion really impoverishment, backwardness, flooding,climate change and decreased soil fertility as the Brit-ish asserted? Or were they really the increased frus-tration associated with less control over the "shiftingforest-dwelling natives," the loss of land-based taxrevenue and the threats to the valuable raw materialfor ship building in Madras and Bombay and the ex-

panding railway system? In the Palnis, taxes were col-lected on every hoe, plow and hatchet. Land culti-vated by hoes was taxed higher than land cultivatedby a plow. This reinforced the British desire to tamethe hill people and further discouraged plantain andkumri cultivation which was hoe cultivation.

The British formally stated that in the upper Pal-nis there were "wide extents of land over which thehilt folk have no rights of occupation..." (Francis,1914). In 1860, two peons were assigned to patrol thePalnis, one to the lower range and one to the upperrange, at a rate of Rs.5 per month (In today’s cur-rency this is equivalent to $US0.15 or the price oftwo mangoes, one AA battery, or one cup of SouthIndian coffee in a fancy restaurant. No doubt thiswas a fortune 135 years ago.) The duties of theseearly "beat officers" were to enforce rules againstkumri cultivation, collection of certain forest prod-ucts, and felling trees without timber permits. It isdoubtful whether two beat officers roaming the Pal-nis could have made much of a difference to forestconservation or amassing the Presidency’s wealth.What remains largely undocumented are the socialrelations between these beat officers and forest-dwelling peoples. At the local level these govern-ment-employed and therefore "powerful" peonscould have had a significant impact on the wealth ofthe household or an entire village.

The year 1882 saw the passing of the Madras For-est Act. One segment of this legislation categorizedthe forested areas of the Madras Presidency (presentday Tamilnadu and some areas of the neighboringstates of Kerala and Andhra Pradesh) into the man-agement units of Reserved Forest and Village Forest.The latter were to be managed by local residents fortheir daily needs. The rights of local people to collectfuelwood, construction poles and fodder were re-stricted in Reserved Forests by the Indian Forest Actof 1927. Not until 1988 were these basic needs le-gally re-established through the Forest ConservationAct.

The Forest Department still controls trade in minorforest products. Private contracts are becoming morepopular and are issued for the nuts and fruits mostprized and demanded by local industry. Villagersand tribals still are exploited for meager daily wagesin collecting them.

Despite a shrinking habitat in both the WesternGhats and Palnis, wildlife is still abundant; althoughwild elephants are no longer found "as far east asKannivadi zaminadri" (See below). Most of the 200bird species in the Palnis are endemic to its shola(montane) forests. Elephants ignore state boundariesand migrate through corridors in the Palnis to adja-cent wildlife sanctuaries. Other endangered speciesinclude the Nilgiri tahr, an endemic goat, Nilgiri Lan-gur, and leopard. Guar, barking deer, mouse deer,

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sambar deer, civets, jackal, sloth bear, wild boar andseven species of squirrel are commonly sighted by vil-lagers and less often seen by tourists. People claimlivestock fall prey to tigers. There has been no con-firmed sighting of this majestic cat. Wildlife ecologistsbelieve that leopards (Panthera pardus) are the actualpredators that cause such damage.

Research site history and description ofKombai

The northeastern Palni slopes fall between 7736Eto 7744’E and 1021’N to 1025’30 N. My research inthe Siruvattukadu-Parapalar watershed covered a4570-hectare area. The Forest Department manages3757 hectares of this as Reserved Forest. Local farmersand absentee landholders cultivate the remaining 813hectares in lime, orange and coffee plantations. Ap-proximately 70% of the area is under forest cover. Amosaic of dry and moist deciduous forest species cov-ers 50% of the area; evergreen trees cover theremaining 20%.

Before the turn of the century, the north-eastern fo-rests of the Palni Hills were known as "vadakadu,"which in Tamil means ’northern forest.’ The forestswere under the control of zamindars, large landownerswho collected taxes for local chieftains and later forthe British The forests of present day Kombai wereunder the control of the zamindars of Oddanchatramand Kannivadi. The zamindar of Kannivadi ownedhis "estate" until 1863 when he was forced into bank-ruptcy and began to lease out his land (Francis, 1906).The Forest Department employed local people to pro-cure forest products for the state’s industrial con-sumption. Paliyans, an indigenous food- gathering so-ciety, freely roamed the hills.

Village establishment and agricultural cultivationbegan in Vadakadu in 1901. These settlements includedPalkadai, Vadakadu, and Siruvattukadu Kombai. TheBritish granted patta (legal title) to 300 acres in Vada-kadu, but was unable to find out who held these titles.The natural supposition that patta were issued to thefirst residents is belied by the fact that the records showthat people issued patta visited the area only twice ayear. Landowners practiced rainfed agriculture, culti-vating pulses and grains. The only visits made to theland occurred during the sowing and harvesting sea-sons. Most likely these right-holders lived on the plainsand hired other people to manage their fields.

The Pulaiyars, an agricultural laboring caste, are beolieved to be the first inhabitants of the Palni Hills.Supposedly, they encroached on patta land once thelandholders left. As the area’s original inhabitants,perhaps the Pulaiyars were displaced by the British orthe zamindars or both, in which case their "encroach-ment" can be seen as their way of reasserting their tra-ditional fights. Perhaps the Pulaiyars were opportu-nists who felt they could manage the "abandoned"

land better and in their own interest after the "legal"patta holders returned to their native places.

Historical accounts detail only the Pulaiyar processof cutting trees for producing charcoal and claim thatthey are responsible for early deforestation on thenortheastern slopes. But, missionaries (encouraged bythe British) likewise share the blame for deforestation:The British granted missionaries coupe, a title to clear-cut forest for plantation establishment. Obviously,plantations generated revenue for the Common-wealth, but what did converters of souls know aboutconversion of land, or did that even matter? Yet thetribals (presumably the Paliyans and Pulaiyars asthey are the only tribals in the Palnis) are faultedagain for destructive practices since they were em-ployed by missionaries as tree fellers.

The first written account of a foreigner visitingKombai was recorded in 1909. Mr. Peartchell over-

stayed a hunting excursion in Kombai, cleared 12cents (a little over 1/10 of an acre) and built a school.No physical evidence of the school located southeastof present-day Araliparai remains. Peartchell contin-ued to cut back the forest and established the Maru-malai Coffee Estate. By the end of 1915, the area wassurveyed and mapped by the Forest Department, andthe majority of the residents including Mr. Peartchellissued patta for land cleared and occupied It is un-clear what happened to these cultivators between1915 and 1950.

Today there are three villages in Kombai (Figure 4).Puliyangasam and the Shed Forest settlement werebuilt as part of a tribal relocation scheme in the early1950’s. According to the settlers, though, their newhomes and patta to their own agricultural land werenot granted by the grace and benevolence of the State,but rather by one individual, a man named K.C. Man-nadiyar. While was trying to establish Kombai’s his-tory from interviews with village elders, Mannadiyarwas always mentioned. Historical accounts varyslightly, but several facts remain consistent and manyof the life histories of these "first" occupants are re-

markably similar. do not know where Mannadiyarwas born or his occupation. For reasons cannot yetexplain it appears that during the years 1952-1953,Mannadiyar negotiated and received a land grant (in-cluding the treasured patta) for 153 acres from the Ta-milnadu government. He divided the area into indi-vidual three-acre plots and distributed them amongPulaiyar tribals working as daily laborers on a nearbycoffee estate. Pulaiyars left the estate and moved toKombai to try their skill at farming. Mannadiyar is de-scribed as a bold but simple man. So simple in fact thathe did not even carry an umbrella in the rain. When hedied, all the people in the area went to his cremation tohonor him. "He was healthyminded," was told. "Toobad his son did not inherit his qualities."

The third village is Talaiyuttukadu, literally mean-

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Figure 4: Sketch map ofthe Siruvattukadu Parapalar Watershed

ing, "head spring forest". I never saw a spring here.The huts are all occupied by Paliyans. Sometimeduring the 1950’s (after the Pulaiyars’ arrival), thegovernment resettled them here without issuingpatta. Today Paliyans do not cultivate food or vege-table crops. They only graze buffalo and work ascoolies. In the late 1970’s, work began on the Parapa-lar Dam and the road connecting Oddanchatramand Pachalur was completed.

Present day Kombai

In 1993 there were 111 households and a total pop-ulation of 485 individuals in Kombai. Castes among

the residents range from the lowest possible, sched-uled tribes, and climb as high as backward castemembers, one rung below the reverent Brahmin. Oc-cupations range from shop keepers, farmers, andbasket weavers to daily-wage farmers orchard care-takers, nontimber forest produce collectors and theoccasional odd-job workers.

The Tamilnadu Forest Department controls mostof the extraction and sale of 34 different nontimberforest products. Private contractors bid on and con-trol a small sector of the commercial trade in six for-est products, including bamboo stems for basketweaving, the edible fruits of the tamarind tree and

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the cotton-like fibers found within the fruitsof the silk cotton tree. The collection of forestproducts generates sporadic employmentthroughout the year.

While Kombai is remote, its sheltering hillsdo not keep out showers of foreign and othertypes of external aid. In the late 1970’s, aWest German-based Christian organizationsecured housing loans for the Pulaiyars in theShed settlement. All families who partici-pated in the scheme now reside in identicalone-room mud huts with cement founda-tions, two diamond-patterned lattice-workwindows and covered verandahs. Sturdyhomes such as these are always referred to as"pukka", a Sanskrit word meaning correct.One of the greatest compliments you can paysomeone is to remark on their "pukkaverdu," their correctly built home. The un-derside of the red-ceramic roofing tiles reads,"Latest Model. Approved by Govt. of India."Inset near the door of every freshly white-washed home built by the project is a blackmarble plaque engraved with the following:

Glory of GodTamilnadu Christian CouncilEconomic Life CommitteeHousing Programme

Sponsored byCentral Agency

West Germany, 1978

Every family in the settlement has care-fully covered this inscription with thickwhite paste. The black tablet detracts fromthe house’s crisp, clean look. It took me quite sometime to convince one woman to scrape away thewhitewash so could read what was writtenbeneath.

The Paliyan families living in Puliyangasam residein one-room mud houses with either grass thatch orceramic tile roofing. In Talaiyuttukadu the majorityof the Paliyans live in low-to-the-ground huts ofwoven palm fronds with bundles of dried grass fill-ing the intermittent holes. One elderly woman toldme that her ancestors were coolie laborers during theagricultural season. In the off season, they would gointo the forest for months at a time to dig roots, tohunt and to collect honey. This woman claimed thatthe Pulaiyars are the real tribals because they re-ceived land from the government, whereas the Paliy-ans have a slightly higher rank. Her superior atti-tude does not restrain her from participating inreligious festivals with Pulaiyars. I had the opportu-nity to become absorbed in the delights of one ofKombai’s two most important religious festivals.

Colonial records document Paliyans and Pulaiy-

All g’ains are pounded and g’ound by hand. This woman is grindingfermented rice to make a steamed cake called idli.

ars worshipping their own gods and local deities,not those of the Hindu Tamils living on the plains.In past decades, worshipping the gods of the Hindupantheon has become more prevalent. The mostpopular deity among Kombai’s residents is LordMurugan. Murugan is one of the most ancient Tamilgods. In North India Murugan is known as Subrah-manian. He is the second son of Lord Shiva (God ofmystical stillness) and his beautiful wife, Parvati,the Mother Goddess. Murugan is a mountain god(In her benevolent form, his mother is often referredto as Daughter of the Mountain). During Murugan’sdark phases he is armed with a spear and joins hismother, who is then the terrible war-goddess Korra-vai, on the battlefield dancing among and consum-ing the flesh of the slain. Gods are identified by theirweapons; Murugan by his spear; his father, Shiva bya trident (Basham, 1967).

A month of Murugan worship began at the begin-ning of April, but the preparation for the annual pil-grimage to Murugan’s temple in Palani began at thebeginning of March. When first arrived in Kombai,only older men were wearing the traditional lungi, an

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Houses built with West German assistance

ankle-length cloth wrap in solid orange, yel-low or green. This costume is the first indica-tion that one is preparing for a pilgrimage.The towel that every Tamil man wrapsaround his head during the heat of the daymatches the color of the lungi A string ofwooden beads adorns the devotee’s neck.Every day of preparation begins with a visitto a local shrine, a pile of rocks under a treeor on top of a knoll, where gifts of coconut,bananas or limes, flowers and words are of-fered to the gods. The supplication ends withthe smearing of bright yellow sandalwoodpaste across the entire width of the forehead.

As the days of early March pass, the num-ber of men and eventually women wrappingthemselves in solitary hues increases. Not un-til the end of the month do younger adoles-cent boys proudly sport wooden beads andnew lungi of their own. Kuppasamy, a youthof twelve who lived in the house near mine,greeted me one morning with a mile-widegrin. It took me quite some time to figure outwhat this self-satisfied display was all about.Later that afternoon caught him behind arock fiddling shyly with the beads around hisneck.

In addition to the new attire, pilgrims nomatter what their age, gender or statuswithin the village address each other as sami,which means god or deity in Tamil, but isalso a respectful term of reference or address.Personal names are temporarily shelved. It

Paliganstucture ofpalm fl’ondsand g’ass

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Lord Murugan carrying his spear, which represents the victory ofgood over evil. In Tamil mythology Murugan ridesa peacock and is known for his short temper. He has six houses in Tamitnadu. All are inthe mountains.

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took me a very long time to learn individual names. Iused sami very effectively as a crutch, although I hada difficult time keeping a straight face when ad-dressed mischievous kids half my age with suchrespect:

At the beginning of April the festivities began.There are three "Murugan" devotee groups in Kom-bai. Members of each group donate thirty rupees amonth (US$1) to sponsor a Murugan festival duringthe first 10 days of April. The monthly fee hires atroupe of dancers and acrobats from Oddanchatram,a loudspeaker, cassette tapes of Tamil film songs, agenerator, two Tamil films and a movie projector.was in Kombai for the first function. The excitement,especially among young children, was contagious.Forget the village peace and quiet. Film songs echoedoff the surrounding hills for 36 continuous hours.The night before the film and dance, everyone in-vited me to attend.

At 8:30 P.M. a group of teen-aged girls came to myhut to escort me to the open space in Puliyangasamwhere the evening’s events were taking place. Weleft, each with bed sheet in hand, but only after they

Basket weaving

had quarreled among themselves about who was go-ing to carry my flashlight. Someone had spread a matunder a tamarind tree. The five of us sat down,wrapped in our cotton bed sheets. Vendors who cameup from the plains sold everything from peanut brit-tle to plastic trucks to the 200 of us present. The danc-ing began at 9:15 P.M. and was good fun. Men withbushy hair and spindly legs performed circulardances to drums. They beat cymbals and shook tam-bourines. After the dancing they cheered each otheron as troupe members back-flipped the length of anearby field, strutted in the best Michael Jackson fash-ion and juggled and whipped fire over and aroundtheir heads. One flying flame freed itself and ignited anearby field. was completely satisfied when the en-tertainment ended an hour later.

was unsuccessful in excusing myself from the twofilms that followed. The white sheet nailed betweentwo tree trunks that served as a screen was ripplingin the blustering wind. The organizers, dissatisfiedwith the quality of the black and white picture, tookdown the sheet and hung it on the side of the commu-nity center. do not think lasted more than 20 min-utes into the first film, a religious story about Muru-

gan. know for certain that did not reallysleep either, since no matter which wayflipped myself around on the mat, tree rootspoked into me. Soon enough it was 4:30 A.M.and time to go home. My friends spent thenext two hours with me napping sardine-style in my small quarters. By 6:30 A.M., eachhad gone to her own house to start hermorning chores. How the film-goers func-tioned the next day remains a mystery to me.was completely useless.

After the third function, the devoteestravel to Palani and celebrate a puja to LordMurugan. was told that "back then," pil-grims would walk barefoot to Palani. Todaypeople walk barefoot out to the main roadand board the bus, but, do not expect thatthis belittles the journey’s seriousness or itspurpose.

The basket weavers’ donation

"Fishes can’t afford to live on bad terms with thecrocodiles in the pool.

A peasant farmer in Bengal. The City ofJoy.

There are approximately 10 families inKombai engaged full-time in basket weav-ing. Another 5 to 10 families participate inbasket weaving as a part-time activity. Thesebasket weavers, who continue to follow inthe profession of their fathers, are membersof backward castes, who migrated to Kombaifrom other villages in Dindigul taluk in

Institute of Current World Affairs 11

Packing the dried Jg"uites of the silk cotton tree

search of a new source of raw material. There arethree local bamboo species used for weaving bas-kets. The one called kal (Dendrocalamus strictus Nees.)is the strongest. In addition to weaving small bas-kets for storing household and kitchen wares, weav-ers produce mats, winnowing pans and protectivecovers for tree seedlings. Small baskets are the mostmarketable item and sell for Rs.8 each. One weavercan earn between Rs.25-40 (US$0.75 to $1.33) perday. As a result of having more than two weaversper family and a ready market, basket weavers ap-pear to have more financial stability and securitythan their neighbors. Most weavers market theirgoods directly to shop keepers and basket distribu-tors in Oddanchatram. Their baskets are soldthroughout Anna and Madurai districts. The arrivalof a middleman in Kombai to procure baskets andincrease transaction costs is rare.

All of the basket weavers spoke with are not asworried about the supply of raw materials as muchas they are about access to raw materials. Perhapstoday and for the next few years there is enoughbanboo for everyone, not just for the weaver, but forthe villager who needs a roofing beam or a smallconstruction pole. The bamboo growing along theriver banks closest to the weavers’ homes is not ex-

ploited. The most able-bodied boys of the house-hold walk kilometers into the forest to cut bamboo.Gatherers claim that bamboo cut one year can becut again from the same culm the following year.

Cutting bamboo in Kombai is illegal because thearea is classified as Reserved Forest. A wildlifesanctuary proposal could come under heavyprotest from this community. Generally they be-lieve that a sanctuary would further, or perhapsmore strictly, enforce restrictions on bamboo col-lection. I often wonder if their concern is well-founded. As just mentioned, bamboo collection is

illegal. When the district forest officer or anotherhigh-ranking forestry official is scheduled to visitthe area, the local forest guard warns the weaversof the inspection so they can hide their materials.For his friendly advice, the forest officer collectsRs.50 -100 (US$1.50- $3.00) per family per month.This is the basket weavers’ donation; everyoneuses the English word.

Conflicts over land and tree

often asked the beneficiaries of Mannadiyar’sgift whether their lives were better now in Kombaithan they were previously on the estates. Their an-swers disclosed mixed emotions and the underly-ing tensions between family and community mem-bers. The following stories are typical of those thatreflect, struggle waged by local residents over theuse of land and trees.

Chellamma has lived in Kombai for over 40years. She came to Kombai with her husband whenhe received three acres from Mannadiyar in 1953. Thefamily moved from the coffee and cardamom estate.

Clearing the land was extremely difficult; entire fami-lies left this new land behind and returned to the es-tates. Those new inhabitants who were determined to

stay on the gift plots often added these relinquishedplots to their own. Initially the land supported rice

and a variety of grains and leguminous crops. Fifteento twenty years ago, farmers abandoned these subsis-tence crops because they were continuously damagedby forest-dwelling deer and guar. Limes replacedfood crops. While waiting for the trees to bear fruit,men went off to pursue work or sold part of theirland to men from the plains to obtain money to feedtheir families.

"In comparison life was better on the estate," thisfrustrated, elderly woman declared. "At least thenyou could eat." Life was tough on the estate. The dayswere long and wages were low, but managers pro-vided provisions or food subsidies. In those days, shecould buy 2 kg of rice for one rupee. Now she needsat least twenty rupees (US$0.66) a day to feed the fourgenerations that live under her roof. This sum pro-vides only one meal of rice a day. Feeding a family to-

day is complicated by spiraling inflation which forces

12 CMC-13

a family to spend nearly their entire earnings on food.Chellamma’s home is a household of women eventhough both of her sons live in Kombai. Each sonworks three acres of land. The youngest son gives herfood, but only when he makes one of his infrequentvisits home. Chellamma is too old to work at the limeplantations as her nieces and daughters occasionallydo for a daily wage of fifteen rupees (US$ 0.50). Thisfirst-time great grandmother collects the small andfragrant white flowers of the silk cotton tree, driesthem in the sun and stores them by the kilogram.Each kilogram is worth six rupees (US$ 0.18).

Another man has lost his family and his land to anelder brother. Balamurugan’s parents received landin 1953. Finding it too difficult to clear away the jun-gle, they returned to the estate. When his parentsdied twenty-five years ago, his elder brother returnedto Kombai to reclaim the family’s three acres. After asuccession of quarrels, he re-established his family’sclaim but refused to share any of the land with Bala-murugan. Balamurugan works on one of the manylime orchards in Kombai owned by absentee land-owners. For less than 75 cents a day, he weeds, ap-plies pesticide, prunes the trees, and gathers and mar-kets the fruits. In the past ten years, his wife has diedand in a desperate attempt to provide for this threechildren he has sent his two daughters to a free or-phanage school in Madurai. His son remains withhim.

One inhabitant recalls that the years between 1953-1963 were particularly difficult due to famine on theplains. Thieves on horseback would raid Kombai’sfields, break into people’s homes to steal food andambush farmers on their way to market. This hard-ship in addition to wildlife predation and difficultyclearing land caused settlers to seek refuge again inthe hill estates. Little did they realize that this flightleft their land "up for grabs." When the refugees re-turned, residents who had suffered through thesemultiple disasters refused to return the deserted land.They had begun to cultivate it as their own.

One man leased out his lime trees for 12 years for apittance--Rs.9,000 (US$290.00). He and several otherKombai residents work this land for Rs.25 (US$0.81) aday. The farmer now realizes his mistake. The lease-holder earns roughly Rs.40,000 (US$1,290) a yearfrom the sale of limes.

A landowher can earn over Rs.100,000 (US$3,250) amonth with thirty acres of lime trees. say landownerand not farmer because in Kombai, it is the exceptionrather than the rule that the farmer and the land-owner are the same person. What caused the down-fall of the Pulaiyars who were given the chance to befinancially independent and self-supporting overforty years ago? Some farmers say trickery, otherspoverty, others thievery. Regardless of the cause, theeffect is the same. The land was lost. You might won-

der how this could have happened considering thefact that the government granted Mannadiyar title tothis land before he parceled it out.

Patta is a difficult piece of paper to acquire. This istrue even if you inherit patta land from your fatherand need to transfer it into your name or pay outrightfor the title to your land in cold hard cash. Justice isexpensive. Many farmers cannot afford to bribe theofficials with enough money (the usual practice) topurchase the patta that is rightfully theirs. Even whensuccessful in obtaining the title, it is only a powerfulpiece of paper when there is plenty of green paper be-hind it. The following story of a Kombai woman illus-trates this point and describes the circumstances thatbefall many local farmers.

"My name is Natamal think am almost 60 yearsold. have two sons and two daughters. My husbanddied four years ago; and I want my tree back."

Natamal who spoke these words, was born andgrew up in Dindigul taluk. She is a Harijan. She de-scribed her father as "basically a slave" on agricultu-ral lands in Oddanchatram. She began working for afarmer at the age of five, herding cattle for 50 paise aday (today equal to $US0.01). Her parents marriedher off at the age of 13. She went to live with her in-laws in Dindigul and gave birth to her first child oneyear later. For 40 years she and her husband lived in asmall earthen hut underneath a large tamarind tree inKombai. They received patta for one acre that in-cluded the land the home is built on and where thetamarind tree is rooted. The patta is registered in hername. The trouble over the tamarind tree began threeor four years ago. The sale of the tree’s fruits annuallyearn Rs.2000 (US$66.00). As the tree grows and ma-tures, this revenue should increase to Rs.5000(US$133.00) per season.

V.M.A. Annival, a descendant of the original landgiver, Mannadiyar (some say his son, others hisnephew), controls six acres of lime plantation aroundNatamal’s homestead. Through threats of physicalbeatings and bribes to village and district officers, hehas taken over the tree and its earnings. First, Annivalthreatened her family through hired thugs. Thisproved unsuccessful as police officers defended herand allowed her to keep the tamarind fruits. Annivalthen took the case to the local court. He paid off thejudge who overturned the patta and awarded the treeto him. Natamal lost Rs.200 (US$6.50) in court fees.Her next move was to file a complaint with the execu-tive director of village development in Dindigul whosupervises the dasidar (land registration) section. Evi-dently he’s on Annival’s payroll too. "If you comeand ask me for the tree again will go to the policeand to my supervisors," he replied, and dismissedher.

"He (Annival) is very rich and am very poor. am

Institute of Current World Affairs 13

went through the process of applying for individ-ual patta for each of the grantees, then he held onto these too. Perhaps he had too much faith in hisdescendants.

Natamal and her youngest daughter

asking for life, but he is not ready to give life," Nata-mal said when I asked her for her opinion of Annival.The loss of the tree reduces the family’s annual in-come to Rs.1500 (US$49.00), generated solely throughthe sale of limes. Natamal is so upset by the loss ofthe tree, around which Annival has since built afence, that she has moved to Oddanchatram to livewith her daughter. Her youngest son lives in Kombaiand continues the fight for the tree. Annival hires lo-cal people to collect the fruits for a daily wage. One ofhis employees is the husband of Munniammal thewoman hired to cook my meals during my villagestay. thought better of asking her husband what hethought about Natamal’s conflict over the tamarindtree; in cases such as these a full stomach for his fam-ily is probably more important than fighting an-other’s losing battle.

V.M.A. Annival’s wrath extends beyond this onetree into the entire Kombai settlement. Annival is thelargest absentee landowner in the area. He hasusurped much of the land granted by his ancestor,threatening to beat those insolent enough to ask for itback. Former landowners have been reduced to labor-ers on their own soil. have not had access to govern-ment land ownership records, but villagers tell methat Munnadiyar held the patta to 153 acres. If he

The squirrel bandwagon

The rational that the Palni Hills PreservationCouncil (PHCC) has put forth for the protection ofthe watershed as a wildlife sanctuary is that it isthe habitat of the grizzled giant squirrel. It is quitecommon for conservation initiatives to rallyaround one particular species or unique ecosys-tem. There is, for example, a flying squirrel sanctu-ary in the state of Rajasthan. In 1994, the woollyflying squirrel was "re-discovered" in the Hima-layas of Pakistan-controlled Jammu and Kashmir.The species had not been spotted by a scientistsince 1924. For several years the staff of the Wild-life Conservation Society in the United States hastried to establish nature reserves to protect this ra-don which is also home to the endangered snowleopard (NYT).

One objective for my research and stay in Kombaiwas to add an ecological dimension to Siruvattu-kadu reaching beyond protection of the squirrel. Asmentioned in my last newsletter (CMC-12), the bo-

tanical knowledge of local residents is extensive.Ethnobotanical surveys conducted with Paliyan,Pulaiyar and backward caste members found that284 species from over 59 different plant familieshave local uses in witchcraft, medicine, daily meals,ritual and construction. A number of endemic tim-

ber trees were also identified. While no systematic flor-istic or faunal surveys have been conducted in thearea, the number of different species and families rep-resented in the ethnobotanical surveys are an initial in-dicator of forest floral diversity.

The forest provides refuge to a number of wildlifespecies. crossed paths with several fourlegged crea-tures. Guar (Bos guarus), barking deer (Muntiacus munt-jak), sambar deer (Cervus unicoloG mouse deer (Tragu-lus meminna), squirrel (Ratufa spp., Funambutus spp., andPetaurista spp.), wild boar (Sus scrofa), mongoose (Her-pestes edwardis) and porcupine (Hysterix indica) makethe forest their home. There are unconfirmed reports ofjackal (Canis aureus), Indian fox (Vulpes bengalensis),hyena (Hyaena hyaena), and jungle cat (Felis chaus).

If this watershed and wildlife habitat are damaged,it will be most likely by outsiders (like Annival) whomanipulate policies, police and politicians. Perhaps thePHCC sanctuary proposal (if it is implemented and en-forced) can protect the forest and its residents fromthem.

The watershed is quite small compared to the usualsize of a national park or wildlife sanctuary. Some gov-ernment officials may not find the area worth the fi-

14 CMC-13

nancial investment involved in changing its manage-ment. The entire area is designated (notified) as Re-served Forest. In theory, it is already sufficiently pro-tected. In order to denotify more than five acres ofReserved Forest a petition must be sent to and ap-proved by the Prime Minister of India. Since the "cen-ter" maintains control of some the nation’s forest re-sources, one might think that the government holdsdear its remaining biological wealth. Still there are sev-eral obstacles of a political, economic and social originthreatening conservation.

Poaching

Sandalwood and rosewood smuggling are rampantin the Palnis and nearby Nilgiri Hills. Sandal oil luresmany smugglers. Coimbatore (Figure 3) is a crossroadsfor Tamilnadu smugglers heading for sandalwood oilextraction plants in Kerala. Considering plant locationsare common knowledge, it is surprising that forest offi-cials cannot curb the illegal trade. A recent investiga-tion found that most of these plants are solely depen-dent on timber smuggled from Tamilnadu. Thirtykilograms of heartwood produces at least Rs.7,000(US$227.00) worth of oil. The wood can be recycled atleast three times for additional oil extraction.

The Forest Department cannot cover all routesthrough Tamilnadu and into Kerala, but over the lasttwo years has managed to confiscate 26 tons of sandal-wood worth approximately 46 lakhs (US$ 150,000).Unfortunately according to Tamilnadu law, sandal-wood is not a "scheduled" timber. Offenders are onlyprosecuted if they possess at least 100 kgs. Smugglersof "scheduled" timbers such as rosewood, silver oakand teak must pay three times the value of the quantityseized or remain in custody.

Sandalwood smuggling occurs infrequently an theeastern side of the Parapalar Dam (Figure 4). Kombairesidents say that whenever a tree has been poachedforest officers swarm throughout the forest like bees toa hive for a 24-hour period. Otherwise, visits by fo-restry officials are rare. The prevalence of poaching onthe eastern side of the dam is possible since the area isaccessible by a paved road meant for dam mainte-nance and the enjoyment of city dwellers seeking pic-nic sites. The sandalwood mafia may be moving southfrom the Nilgiri to the Palnis. All of the sandalwood isgone from the Nilgiris. The new gold mine there isrosewood Rangarajan, 1995).

In May 1995 one of the most prominent sandalwoodsmugglers of the Tamilnadu/Kerela/Karna-taka tri-state area was arrested along with two of his wives.The offender, Masanan, would carry out poaching op-erations dressed like a forest officer. Masanan’s accom-plices hide out in remote areas of the parks in the hillsof Tamilnadu and Karnataka.

The Timber mafia operates throughout India. In the

northern Indian city of Haridwar, the location of RajajiNational Park mafia members have killed six forestguards in the past year. The last victim was hackedinto three pieces and thrown out onto the main road.Forest guards and beat officers who used to patrolalone and unarmed have changed their strategy. Sincethey have begun defending the parks natural resourcesin armed groups of 15 to 20 men, and when possibletraveling by jeep or mini-bus, they have seized moreskins and precious timber than normal.

Local Forest Department staff

Without staff (1) committed to the protection of bio-logical diversity and, (2) cooperating with villagers inthe management of local natural resources, a protectedarea may be losing more than words on a piece ofpaper and a new colorful blotch on a computer-generated map.

Considering the system of bribes that already existsin Kombai for bamboo extraction and the unofficialconstruction of roadway into the Reserved Forest,would it make any difference to an unchanged ForestDepartment staff if a new management plan caused itto control a wildlife sanctuary as well as a ReservedForest?

Orphanages and boarding schools

Preserving local forest knowledge and folk/medicinal remedies are two arguments for promotingconservation and enhancing local social services forKombai’s residents. The incidence of sending tribalchildren away to the bigger cities like Madurai threat-ens the transfer of this indigenous knowledge. The cir-cumstances surrounding the enrollment of tribal chil-dren from Kombai in boarding school is muchdifferent today than the rationale used by tribal groupsshortly after Independence.

Shortly after Independence in 1947, local govern-ments established boarding schools for tribal childrenso they could learn the dominant tongue of their nativestate. Schools were founded on the belief that literacyin the language of the people controlling the legal andfinancial structures of the State would reduce exploita-tion of tribal peoples by individuals or organizationswith vested interests.

In Kombai the primary reason for sending childrento boarding school is poverty. Families that cannot af-ford to feed and clothe their children send them awayto Christian organizations and orphanages. Ofttimes,only one child remains at home with the parents. Thisalso illustrates the perception of the benefits of educa-tion. Paliyans in Kombai will send their children ki-lometers away to boarding school but will not sendtheir children to the evening literacy classes that thePHCC nursery manager holds three or four nights aweek. How will children who spend less than two

Institute of Current World Affairs 15

months of the year with their parents acquire theknowledge that daily forest dependence imparts?Furthermore, will children who spend their forma-tive years in the city with all of the convenience ofmodern Indian culture want to return to their ances-tral villages?

The anthropologist Christoph von Furer-Haimendorf (1982) worked among the semi-nomadic Chenchus of Andhra Pradesh in the 1940’s.He wrote that "it remains to be seen whether thoseChenchus who have spent several years in boardingschool will be able to readjust to the forest life oftheir parents. If they have lost the skill of gatheringmarketable forest produce or have developed wantswhich cannot be met from the income Chenchus de-rive from such produce, education may be a mixedblessing except for those young people who obtainjobs outside their traditional habitats" (p. 142-143).

In the case of hunter-gatherers in New Guinea,Jared Diamond (1993) asserts that the first genera-tion of people who rely on employment in urban ar-eas to earn a living rapidly develop fear of and dis-interest in the forest (Austin, 1994).

The ethnobotanical trail surveys conducted earlierthis year (CMC-12) were the first attempts at record-ing the floristic knowledge of Kombai residents. Un-less the survey is completed and followed up, con-siderable information might be lost if it is not taughtto the younger generation.

Government policy: resettlement denotifi-cation and new forest act

Forest management in Tamilnadu is steeped incontroversy and hypocrisy. Jayalalitha’s governmentwants to construct housing colonies for landless peo-ple in several Reserved Forests and develop hydro-electric projects in hill areas designated as "maxi-mum risk landslide zones". A Harijan resettlementis already under construction in the forest along theGhat road connecting Pachalur and Oddanchatram(Figure 4). Two rows of twenty-two identical one-room, red-tiled houses are almost complete. wastold that when the settlers move in, they will also begiven land. Considering that all of the land sur-rounding the site is forest, tenants will most likelyfell the trees and cultivate cash crops unlesssomeone convinces them otherwise. The Forest Con-servation Act prohibits the use of forest land fornon-forestry purposes, which obviously includeshouse construction. Somehow Jayalalitha gets awaywith it.

India is being swept by a series of denotificationsof forested land. In the northwestern state of Rajas-than, the state government wants to denotify asmuch as 3500 km2 of protected forest land to free thearea for mining contracts. Officials are turning to a

clause allowing denotification from the obsolete Ra-jasthan Forest Act of 1953.

The Narayan Sarovar sanctuary in Gujarat, thelast remaining desert-thorn forest in India, was de-notified in July 1993. The state government disre-garded a clause in the Wildlife Protection Act (1972)stipulating that the boundaries of any protected areacannot be altered without approval from the Statelegislature. The state government ranked industrialeconomic development over the protection of itsnon-income-generating ecological heritage. Beneaththe soil lay limestone, lignite, and bauxite deposits.Both environmentalists and industrialists filed courtpetitions. Industry won, initially. A cement corpora-tion filed for and won a contract to mine limestone.Within five months the Gujarat government issuedmore licenses for mining, cement and power plantswithin and around the former protected area. Unre-stricted development pumped out all of the ground-water and salinized the aquifers, thus sealing itsown fate. Villagers fled their homes. Not untilMarch 1995 did the High Court finally act uponwrits filed by Delhi’s Center for Environmental Lawand restore the sanctuary.

The Gujarat case ended on a positive note, butonly after environmental destruction was commit-ted. The impact of the mining operations on the eco-system is not yet known. There has yet to be a ver-dict in the Rajasthan case. Both these casesdemonstrate the power of state governments tooverturn wildlife and forest policy for short-term ec-onomic benefits. Public servants are ordering the de-mise of the country’s biological, and unrecoverable,wealth.

Gadgil and Seshagiri Rao (1995) claim that "theState has Draconian powers to...displace poor peas-ants and tribals without providing alternative live-lihoods." It is not unknown for the Forest Depart-ment to forbid bamboo harvesting for artisans oneday and grant bamboo concessions for industry thenext. There is always a good explanation. In oneparticular case, bamboo cutting by the J.K. IndustryCentral Pulp Mills was approved in a protectedarea since "it allows for increased sunlight for her-bivorous animals" (Brijnath, 1995). Common sensetells anyone that rural artisans would have had thesame effect. Furthermore, the extraction rate of anartisan community is much lower than a capital-intensive industry and their method of extraction ismore "friendly." The New Forest Act proposes tofortify the State’s and the Forest Department’s deci-sion-making capacity, which will further marginal-ize forest-dependent communities from the man-agement of their local resources.

The Indian Forest Act has not been substantiallyaltered since 1927. The Union Ministry of Environ-

16 CMC-13

ment and Forests drafted a proposal in 1994 titledthe "Conservation of Forests and Other EcosystemsAct". The proposal is meant to replace the existing1927 act, but policy analysts who have had the pro-posal "leaked" to them allege that the act revertsback to the centralized control of the British era. Ac-cording to a professor at the Indian Institute of Pub-lic Administration, the bill fails to incorporate im-portant clauses of the Forest Conservation Act in1988 such as those that recognize the rights of ruralpeople to extract resources such as fuelwood andfodder. If the legislation passes, forest officers willhave the power to annul community and individualrights in an area if they believe that these rights arebeyond the area’s "carrying capacity". The govern-ment will be able to take over village-managed fo-rests if it believes the managing body is incapable ofprotecting the area or following the prescribed man-agement plan. Local people of course have no re-

course to take over a government-owned forest thatis mismanaged.

While Kombai represents only a small area on themap, it is the world to its residents. Legislationpassed in Delhi may not have a significant impact onthe difficult-to-reach areas of the Palni Hills. How-ever, the chance that any progress in forest manage-ment or the rights of forest residents could be re-duced to nothing by the whim of a forest guardlurks behind an A4 sheet of paper.

India is one of two countries (the other is SriLanka) among those in the Asia-Pacific region withthe strongest conservation ethnic and the most de-veloped legal and institutional framework for theconservation of biological diversity (Braatz et al,1992). The conservation institution, however, is onlyas promising as its leaders and decision-makers. 3

Institute of Current World Affairs 17

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Institute of Current World Affairs 19

Author: Institute of Current World AffairsTitle: ICWA Letters South AsiaISSN: 1083-4257

Imprint: Institute of Current World AffairsHanover, NH

Material Type: SerialLanguage: EnglishFrequency: Monthly

Other Regions: East Asia; Mideast/North Africa;Europe/Russia; SubSaharan Africa;The Americas

Chosen on the basis of character, previous ex-perience and promise, Institute Fellows areyoung professionals funded to spend a mini-mum of two years carrying out self-designedprograms of study and writing outside theUnited States. The Fellows are required to re-port their findings and experiences from thefield once a month. They can write on anysubject, as formally or informally as theywish. The result is a unique form of report-ing, analysis and periodical assessment of in-ternational events and issues.

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