Park People Conflicts: Study of Selected Villages of Chamoli District in the Vicinity of NDBR

Since the British Colonial time the surrounding area of India's second largest peak Mt. Nanda Devi, blessed with immense natural beauty and a rich plethora of floral and faunal wealth has witnessed local people's agitation towards the Government Policies which has became the reason d'etre for the world famous Chipko Movement in 1970s to save the regions forest from commercial clean felling. With the creation of Nanda Devi National Park in 1982 and its up-gradation to Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (NDBR) in 1988, local Bhotia villagers living in the vicinity of the protected area have faced an uphill battle to recover their social, cultural and economic rights. The complete ban on harvesting, grazing, hunting, trekking and mountaineering in order to protect the reserve from further ecological degradation has an adverse impact on local economy, that has already suffered from a blow by the closure of Indo-China border in 1962 led to a struggle to regain communal rights over park land.

Even though the opening of the NDBR in 2003 to limited tourism activities for the first time in 20 years could not satisfied locals towards the Park Policies. The official 2003 plan of the government envisioned balancing biological conservation, economic development and sustainable eco-tourism practices. These include development of a cottage level wool industry, cultivation of medicinal plants, poultry, apiculture and promotion of Eco-friendly tourism. Active participation of locals is to be ensured at all levels of implementation. Research, interpretation and conservation education and infrastructure development have all remained only in the papers.

The present paper is based on the quantitative methods to evaluate the level of satisfaction of locals towards the park policies as well as to find out the local perception towards the co-management of the park in Reni, Lata, Tolma and Paing villages in the Niti Valley of NDBR.