Special Section: The challenges of decolonizing conservation, edited by Dan Brockington, Esteve Corbera and Sara Maestre-Andrés

En-gendering human-wildlife interactions in Northeast India: towards decolonized conservation

Authors: Sayan Banerjee orcid logo (National Institute of Advanced Studies) , Shalini Sharma orcid logo (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research – Pune)

  • En-gendering human-wildlife interactions in Northeast India: towards decolonized conservation

    Special Section: The challenges of decolonizing conservation, edited by Dan Brockington, Esteve Corbera and Sara Maestre-Andrés

    En-gendering human-wildlife interactions in Northeast India: towards decolonized conservation

    Authors: ,

Abstract

This article applies a feminist political ecology framework to analyze a particular case of human-wildlife interaction from northeastern India, linking it to the emerging paradigm of 'decolonized conservation.' Through the oral testimonies of local community members with regard to living close to wild Asian elephants in a forest-agriculture landscape matrix of rural Assam, this article argues that place-based conceptualizations of 'wildlife', 'forest dependency' and 'living with wildlife' are affected by gendered roles and responsibilities, gendered access to spaces and gendered interaction with wildlife. By doing so, this article argues for (i) extending the discourse on 'decolonized conservation' towards the role of gender in rethinking these place-based conceptualizations and (ii) bringing forward such 'en-gendering' into redesigning wildlife policies, as that will have the potential of ensuring feminist environmental justice as well as positive conservation outcomes.

Keywords: conservation, decolonization, Asian elephant, gender, Assam, wildlife

How to Cite:

Banerjee, S. & Sharma, S., (2022) “En-gendering human-wildlife interactions in Northeast India: towards decolonized conservation”, Journal of Political Ecology 28(1), 1082–1100. doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.5217

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Published on
14 Aug 2022
Peer Reviewed