The people have their say

It’s my last full day in Kanha and today, as part of the project, I travel to a local village to interview the Forest Committee. Fifteen members of the committee show up and we are shown kindness and warm hospitality. Nanda translates my questions and repeats back the villager’s answers, which mirror the information I gleaned from pre-assignment research. What is most disturbing is that the answers this committee gives are the same as the answers to similar questions asked ten years previously by Latika Nath, one of my tiger consultants. It seems that, despite their protestations, nothing has changed in a decade. In terms of the project, the interview is a success but I leave despondent. If nothing has changed in ten years, what makes us think the next ten will yield any difference in attitude? And if nothing changes, what hope has the tiger?

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