Tribal livelihoods in transition: a study on the Baiga of Central India

Natural resources such as jal (water), jamin (land), and jungal (forest) play an important role in creation of sustainable livelihoods to many tribal communities in India. It is evident from the age-old subsistence practices of hunting and gathering, fishing, pastoralism, shifting cultivation, horticulture, agriculture, art and craft, etc. However, the gradual decrease of forests and other natural resources due to population explosion, industrialization, mining. and establishment of multipurpose development projects in resource rich tribal pockets are making dents on the availability forest-based livelihoods to the tribal communities in India.

The revenue orientated forest policies and the scientific forestry for commercial purposes culminated in overexploitation of pristine forest resources and uprooting of the tribal communities from their resource base. The condition of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) is more vulnerable than Scheduled Tribes since majority of them still depend on forest for their livelihoods. The concentration of rich mineral resources in their habitat has become a bane for these primitive tribes and eventually face displacement and eviction without proper rehabilitation. To overcome the problems of livelihoods, many natural resource management oriented programmes and policies are undertaken at national and state level. All these policies and programmes could not synergies livelihoods of the dependent communities under single window rather they are overlapping one upon another. This alarming situation has made the scholars, activists, conservationists, and the planners to devise approaches to understand the dynamics of resource management among the tribal areas.