Tiger Reserve Area in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh states of India

The land use around Tiger reserves plays an important role in sustaining the flow of organisms, water, nutrients and energy- linking the reserves to the outside. These reserves in India also support the livelihood needs of people living in and around them, especially fuelwood, fodder, forest products etc. Understanding these links between reserves and their surroundings is critical for effective conservation management and planning. As anthropogenic pressure builds and human-animal conflicts escalate – the need for a better scientific approach to manage land use around PAs becomes a critical conservation goal in India. Professor Ruth Defries and Amrita Neelakantan tried to map villages around Kanha Reserve area in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh states. Researchers selected 850 resettled households in 157 villages across four districts in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Additionally, researchers selected 425 non-resettled households across the landscape to provide baselines for variables in the analyses. Morsel collected primary data from selected Households (using GPS locations) across three seasons (summer, monsoon and winter) to capture seasonal variability of food security and pressures exerted by both resettled and non-resettled households.