How Bengaluru’s Bannerghatta National Park changed the livelihood of this landless villager

Betta Kaval is a hamlet by the Bannerghatta forests, off bustling Bengaluru. Gangamma (name changed), about 60 years old, steers her small herd of sheep towards the forests, holding a long stick.

Turning back to her grandson, who waits for the daily bus to college, she calls out, “Oye, can you recharge my cell phone on your way back?”

The grandson gives a lazy nod. She then disappears hurriedly but carefully, keeping an eye for the forest guards, into a patch that is neither the gomala (grazing commons) nor the forest.

Boundaries between forest patches and grazing commons are pretty blurred in these villages. Coming from a marginalised, landless family, Gangamma is forced to wander near the forest fringes to graze sheep, her only source of livelihood. 

The forests and green spaces in urban landscapes should be brought under protection. 

‘Protected areas’ in city peripheries are mostly a mosaic of forests, water bodies, grazing lands and other commons that adjoin industrial estates, settlements and other built-up areas.

While there is a growing need for urban residents to be around ‘nature’, most of the green spaces in and near our cities are dwindling in their extent and ecological richness. 

The forest department and other government agencies, non-profits, citizen’s collectives, etc., work towards protecting urban green areas.

But the impacts of these protection measures and policies on the traditional uses and practices associated with urban forests are often overlooked.

Bannerghatta National Park (BNP), Bengaluru’s most significant green space, sits well within the city boundaries.

BNP constantly experiences various urbanisation-driven pressures affecting its resources and forest management.

Ragi (finger millet) cultivation and livestock rearing are the primary sources of livelihood around BNP.

Several communities have been using the forest and its fringes for subsistence agriculture, grazing and collecting forest produce.

With BNP receiving special interest as an important elephant habitat, the protection of the park has been firmed up.

An eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of 268.96 square kilometres was notified in 2016 to cushion the park against disturbances.

However, its area was reduced almost by 30 per cent in 2020 to facilitate developmental activities such as roads and mining.

Agriculture and livestock ownership around BNP have significantly shifted in response to urbanisation.

Bengaluru city demands about 18 lakh litres of milk per day. Enticed by the urban opportunity, livestock rearers have shifted from sheep and indigenous cattle to high-yielding, exotic hybrid breeds. 

The National Sample Survey Organization estimates a decline of six per cent in the indigenous cattle population of the country from 2012 to 2019. 

The number of livestock per rural household has decreased over the years, with the sharpest decline recorded among landless families. 

Around BNP, lack of access to forests following the tightening of protection measures also triggered this shift from indigenous cattle and sheep. This shift happened as the exotic breeds could be stall-fed using farm fodder.

But sheep have to be grazed in open lands, demanding more time and labour. Our field observations indicate that the numbers of sheep and the local cattle breeds have declined in forest fringe villages. 

The sheep population has reduced by five per cent from 2012 in rural Bengaluru, according to the 2019 livestock census of Karnataka.

The hybrid cows are expensive to maintain and susceptible to heat and various diseases, making livestock farming a high-stake enterprise. However, the burgeoning urban demand currently sustains its economic viability.

Most of the villages around BNP have been dependent on forest-based pastoralism and grazing restrictions in the forest have become a hard-hitting factor. 

Landless people take the bigger hit as they even have limited grazing options.

Agriculture has become a perennial affair owing to the high urban demand for vegetable and fruit crops.

Fallow lands have become a rare sight which leaves little room, quite literally, for landless pastoralists. 

Traditional village commons like grazing lands have been mostly diverted for urban and industrial expansion.

Sheep rearing is, therefore, a tough job as there is less and less area left for animals to graze. That’s not it. There are greater challenges for livestock management around BNP.

Gangamma looks up and realises that the sun is about to go down. She calls out to her grandson for help, “Come soon and help me get these animals back home. Ramappa just told me about a leopard that was spotted near the stream last night.”

She fears that leopards might attack her animals.

The recent tightening of protection of BNP against timber extraction and poaching has increased the forest density.

Cases of human-elephant conflict have increased, often due to the disruption of wildlife corridors due to mining and other developmental activities, noted few recent reports.

Almost every village we visited reported a recent elephant or leopard attack incident. Animals manage to enter villages and ravage croplands and kill livestock, evading solar fences and trenches.

The loss of expensive cattle breeds to wildlife depredation has also resulted in people turning hostile towards conservation in villages in forest peripheries, noted another research paper.

While the larger urban interests dominate the ‘what, ‘who’ and ‘how’ of conservation in peri-urban landscapes, it is vital to keep in mind the silent and often the most affected stakeholders like Gangamma, who are still very much dependent on these protected areas for sustenance. 

The ESZ has been diluted for the facilitation of roads, mining, etc., while the simple needs of people like Gangamma, who wishes to graze her sheep freely, are ignored.

When protected areas are drawn into our city master plans as conservation spaces and tourism hubs, we must also consider the lives and livelihoods of people attached to these green spaces.

A more inclusive urban protected area planning must make equal room for traditional forest usage and tourism and urban recreation.

Gangamma quickly stuffs the last bunch of seegesoppu (Acacia pennata) she has collected in her saree and heads home.

Leaves of seegesoppu are mixed with lentils to make a curry, traditionally served with finger millet balls.

Samudyatha Ramananda is a Project Assistant with Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal and Dhanya Bhaskar is Chairperson, Centre for Policy Studies and Associate Professor of Ecosystem and Environment Management at Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal.

Views expressed are the authors’ own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth

Wildlife & Biodiversity India