Geographies of Human-Bear Interactions in Lahaul, India
Kartik CHUGH, Nature Conservation Foundation, India
Rashmi Singh RANA, Nature Conservation Foundation, India
Smriti JALIHAL, Nature Conservation Foundation, India
Aashish GOKHALE, Nature Conservation Foundation, India
Tanuj NAGPAL, Nature Conservation Foundation, India
Yash Veer BHATNAGAR, Nature Conservation Foundation, India
This article explores the varied modes of entanglements between humans and bears (Himalayan black bear and Himalayan brown bear) in the trans-Himalayan landscape of Lahaul valley in India, wherein a recent shift towards cash crops coupled with a lack of proactive wildlife management strategy has resulted in an increase in human-bear interactions over the last decade. We documented these interactions by the means of focus group discussions (FGDs) (n=30), informal conversations, and structured interviews (n=160) with various stakeholders in 21 conflict villages over a span of six months during 2021. This study showcases the multifaceted ways in which the everyday lives of humans and bears are imbricated with each other and the landscape, and how these interactions are a matter of “common sensing”. Cohabiting this shared space requires both humans and bears to not just learn about each other and the landscape intimately, but also to act upon this knowledge by moulding their respective behaviours in response. We demonstrate how the contradictory and ambiguous depiction of bears in Lahaul as both troublesome and innocent, fearsome and helpless, trouble the neat distinctions between humans and nonhumans, wilderness and civilization. But bears are not just symbolic foils for human representations but also active participants whose agencies, subjectivities, individualities, intentions, and differences are instrumental in co-shaping and co-producing the economic and agricultural geographies of Lahaul. We use this case to raise the all-important question of how to understand and incorporate bears (and nonhumans in general) in conservation decision-making. We conclude by stressing the importance of realising the active role of humans, nonhumans and the landscape in co-shaping relations, and conservation politics.
Mots clés : Animal Geography|Human-Bear interactions|Animal Agency|More-than-human|Himalayas
A105191KK