Peopled parks: Forest change in India’s protected landscapes

Abstract

Understanding forest change in the densely populated, forested landscapes of India poses a challenge. Although India has an established approach toward conservation that is focused on protected areas, the long history of human settlement, high population density, and human use of forests and the diversity of biophysical, ecological, social, and institutional conditions create a challenging context for forest protection. In this chapter, we synthesize information from a number of case studies of land-use/land-cover change in India, and examine four case studies in detail to provide insights into the drivers of forest clearing and regrowth in peopled parks.We find that protected areas are an important influence on the rural Indian landscape and have been reasonably successful in maintaining forest cover within their core areas. There is, however, considerable forest change taking place at the periphery of protected areas, with substantial clearing near settlements and accessible locations. In urbanizing landscapes, protected areas continue to play a dominant role, but forest availability has a major influence on vegetation change, with the human footprint expanding to cover distant, hitherto inaccessible areas. This has extremely worrisome implications for the future of forests in an increasingly urbanizing country that represents the second most populous nation in the world.