A Case Study of the Proposed Omkareshwar
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POLITICAL ECONOMY OF COMPENSATORY CONSERVATION: A CASE STUDY OF THE PROPOSED OMKARESHWAR NATIONAL PARK COMPLEX, INDIA A Dissertation by ABHINEETY GOEL Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, Wendy Jepson Committee Members, Kathleen O’Reilly Christian Brannstrom Amanda Stronza Head of Department, Vatche Tchakerian August 2013 Major Subject: Geography Copyright 2013 Abhineety Goel ABSTRACT Proposed Omkareshwar National Park Complex (ONPC), is a planned park in Madhya Pradesh (central India) that is being designed as a compensatory conservation plan to overcome the loss of wildlife and forest by the construction and submergence from nearby Indira-Sagar and Omkareshwar dams, part of the infamous multi-purpose Narmada dam project. All the village communities in the ONPC largely depend on the forest resources for their daily sustenance, particularly fuel-wood and non-timber forest products such as tendupatta, mahua, kullu and dhavda gums . The local people typically engage as gatherers of non-timber forest resources, farmers or work as labors on other agricultural farms. Enclosing, this forest commons, threatens the livelihood opportunities of adivasis . Hence, this dissertation questions how compensatory conservation transforms the forest governance and the economic activities of the local communities. I examine how rules-in-use control spatial actions alter economic, political and social relationships within proposed ONPC in central India. I gathered the economic, social and political data through interviews, case-studies and surveys. Farmers benefit from the creation of the ONPC as a biodiversity offset, while other villagers engaged in off-farm and NTFP extraction labor, are more economically vulnerable. Adivasi depend mostly on the forest resource extraction for their income generation. Therefore, with increasing restrictions placed on the resource access and control, resource users are forced to travel outside their villages in search of wage labor. ii To my late grandparents Santosh and Ishwar, my parents Ameeta and Rajesh and dearest Isha didi Thanks for being my pillars of support and inspiration iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Foremost, I would like to thank my committee chair, Wendy Jepson who constantly challenged me beyond my imagination. Thank you for your countless hours of advice and revisions. I would never have been able to finish my dissertation without your persistent but patient guidance and help. I am grateful to my committee members, Kathleen O’Reilly, Christian Brannstrom, and Amanda Stronza, who not only provided a stimulating academic environment, but also for their constant support, encouragement, insightful comments and hard questions posed throughout the course of this dissertation. In particular, my intellectual debt is to Wendy Jepson and Kathleen O’Reilly for making me who I am today. I am truly fortunate to have had worked with both. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Andrew Millington without whose help and motivation the dream of pursuing the Ph.D. program would have remained incomplete. You have helped me at every step in getting my doctoral career started on the right foot and providing me with the spot-on foundation. I would also like to acknowledge the financial, academic, technical and every possible support that I received from Texas A&M University which enabled me to successfully complete my program. My deepest appreciation goes to my friends and colleagues and the department faculty and staff for making my time at Texas A&M University an enjoyable experience. Special thanks to Swetha Peteru for those long nights of revisions and feedbacks. iv I also want to extend my gratitude to Chief Conservator of Forest (proposed ONPC) Dr Vinay Varman, Sanjay Dongre and the entire staff of proposed ONPC staff at Indore for providing me, not only the materials but, every possible help at every step during my fieldwork. I could not have completed this study without the help of rangers and forest guards in the field who traveled with me from village to village. I would also like to thank all the villagers who patiently answered my every question even during the hot summer days and heavy monsoonal showers. I cannot thank enough Neelam Chaturvedi and my field assistant, Laxmi, without whom, I could have never solved the logistical problems. I am also grateful to Siddharth and Rekha for their assistance in the field. Finally, my late grandparents, without their motivation I would not have embarked on this life-changing journey. Thank you for your last gift. My parents Ameeta and Rajesh for their support and encouragement and to my dearest Isha didi for being my champion and always keeping up my spirits. Hugs to my darling Arshia and Vansh for keeping me entertained during troubled times. And finally, I love my dearest jiju Deepak, for not only keeping up my morale but also helping me with constant technical difficulties. I hope I made all of you proud. v NOMENCLATURE CWINC Central, Waterways, Irrigation and Navigation Commission CWPC Central Water and Power Commission FPCs Forest Protection Committees FRL Full Reservoir Level FVs Forest Villages GCC Global Commodity Chain IANS Indo-Asian News Service IBM International Business Machines Corporation IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature JFM Joint Forest Management NBA Narmada Bachao Andolan N.D. No Date NGO Non-Governmental Organization NHPC National Hydroelectric Power Corporation vi NTFPs Non-Timber Forest Products NVDA Narmada Valley Development Authority ONPC Omkareshwar National Park Complex SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences US$ United States Dollar US/USA United States of America vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. iv NOMENCLATURE .......................................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ x LIST OF TABLES ...........................................................................................................xii 1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 Context and Statement of Problem ......................................................................... 1 State of knowledge ................................................................................................. 3 Research Objectives ............................................................................................. 20 Research Significance and Intellectual Merit ....................................................... 21 Broader Impacts of Research ............................................................................... 22 Dissertation Overview .......................................................................................... 22 2. RESEARCH DESIGN ................................................................................................. 24 Study Area: Background ...................................................................................... 24 Proposed Omkareshwar National Park Complex ................................................. 38 Study Site Communities ....................................................................................... 50 Forest Rules: Before and After Proposed ONPC ................................................. 65 Methodology ........................................................................................................ 73 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 83 viii Page 3. A TRADE-OFF FOR WHOM? CONSERVATION TRADE-OFFS AND INCOME DYNAMICS IN INDIA ...................................................................... 85 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 85 Literature Review ................................................................................................. 87 Research Design ................................................................................................... 99 Results ................................................................................................................ 111 Discussion .......................................................................................................... 132 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 136 4. LABOR DYNAMICS WITHIN COMPENSATORY CONSERVATION: A CASE STUDY OF PROPOSED OMKARESHWAR NATIONAL PARK, INDIA .................................................................................................... 138 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 138 Literature Review ..............................................................................................