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Murlidhar Devidas Amte, the social activist popularly known as Baba Amte, referred to this central India belt—or, poverty’s own republic—as the country’s “cummerbund”. He described the region as a repository of immense natural wealth—arguably the country’s richest geography. India’s poorest districts overlap with some of its richest forests, most high-value mineral deposits and major river basins.
Across the world, the geography of poverty follows a similar pattern. The closer one is to natural resources, the higher the likelihood of poverty. The equation of poverty is also generally similar. The greater the reliance on ecology or nature for survival, the higher the probability of being poor. Estimates suggest that natural capital accounts for about 9 per cent of wealth globally, but in low-income countries like India it accounts for 47 per cent of the wealth. This shows the dependence of people on natural resources in developing and poor countries. More than a billion people globally are forest-dependent, and most of them survive below the poverty line, largely concentrated in Africa and Asia.
The resource base of the poorest in the world is also a trillion-dollar economy. The International Union of Forest Research Organizations estimates that forestry contributes at least US $539 billion directly to the global GDP.
If one accounts for its direct, indirect and induced effects, the monetary turnover is $1.2 trillion, or around a third of India’s GDP. Does this indicate the reason for persistent and chronic poverty among nature-dependent communities? One in every 10 people who is poor invariably resides in resource-rich areas and depends directly on nature for survival, such as a forest dweller or a farmer reliant on land and rain for survival.
Now the uncomfortable question: why do the nature-reliant people remain poor? When one looks at the rising prosperity, it emerges clearly that it has come with a heavy cost ...
This article was originally published as part of the cover story Poverty’s own republic in the May 1-15, 2026 print edition of Down To Earth
