The faith reposed by the NTCA and years of our interaction with communities lead Environics to bid for the unenviable task of evolving a model relocation plan for communities in Protected Areas and particularly the Tiger Reserves. The responsibility it entails is severe.
This comes at a time when the debate over Resettlement and Rehabilitation is at its pinnacle, with Group of Ministers and several other State and Civil Society agencies are gripped with articulating several viewpoints and positions of various interest groups.
Today, the art, science and management of relocation must be in such a manner that it reduces the risks to the communities while ushering a better stream of benefits. Successful rehabilitation demands the political and social will to enable such an exercise to be carried out.
The relocation model emphasises the need for multiple levels and nature of efforts. The model also calls for concurrent institutional development. Among the important departures are in the allocation of benefits, every adult women is considered as an independent family, thereby avoiding the potential for neglect of girls.
The proposal also seeks high quality of inputs in education, infrastructure and livelihood generation as these directly impact the successful outcome of relocation effort.
The model, as models will always be, is a framework to implement, but the success will depend upon the honesty of purpose in every location specific application – providing the basis for long-term development of the communities and satisfying the needs of every family displaced.
If it is a tall order, we propose the State to consider the resources it has and undertake only to that extent that it can satisfactorily deliver. Read Report
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