This project sought to examine how policies for environmental conservation serve to shape and reshape environmental subjectivities which are key to good participatory environmental governance. For example, how do notions of adivasi as “natural conservationists” influence the community’s perceptions and representations of themselves? How do narratives of the adivasi as being “one with nature” alter local dynamics between adivasi and non-adivasi communities? In other words, how is identity implicated in claims to legitimacy and access to relationships and resources?

Karthik primarily worked with two non-governmental organisations which have both had extensive experience in working on land rights for Adivasi communities in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. The NGO in Gudalur formed a part of a coalition of NGOs in the Nilgiri District which set-up an unusual system for implementing the FRA. This coalition consisted of both tribal welfare NGOs as well as international conservation organisations. They have worked with the district administration in the Nilgiri to route claims filed under the FRA through Gram Sabhas consisting exclusively of adivasi. The NGO in H.D. Kotte assisted adivasi in N. Begur Gram Panchayat in a struggle for land rights following their displacement from their traditional homelands. This involved a long and drawn out legal battle with the National Human Rights Commission.

In order to understand how the FRA has
been implemented in Gudalur, Karthik identified the key stakeholders in the field, covering a cross-section of civil-society, state and community actors. Her primary methodologies included participant observation and semi-structured interviews with the key individuals and organisations involved in the implementation of the FRA in Gudalur. Additionally, she worked closely with the regional centers of the NGO in Gudalur to conduct a pilot survey to understand how many and what kinds (individual or communal, what type of land, etc) of claims have been filed. The information collected during the interviews with the key implementers was contextualized in an understanding of the historical and political processes that have informed and affected the FRA.

In H.D Kotte, Karthik used oral history methodologies to collect and curate oral histories of the adivasi leaders and participants in this struggle for land rights. The events of a struggle for land rights were documented through semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and participant observation with the key individuals involved in the movement. Additionally, she worked with the NGO to understand their role in the struggle, attempting to assess to what extent rehabilitation has been successful and identify further gaps that need to be filled.