Mistaking the Map for the Territory: What Does the History of Bannerghatta National Park, India, Tell us about the Study of Institutions?

Abstract

This article traces the history of Bannerghatta National Park (BNP), a deciduous forest south of Bengaluru city, India that is undergoing rapid socio-ecological transformations. Using remotely sensed data combined with interviews, oral histories and archival material we map the changing landscape to discern continuity and change in BNP across pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods. Our findings show that complexity is historically contingent and is core to the understanding of contemporary forest governance challenges. Legacies of past social structures such as caste remain a visible presence in the landscape and affect institutional functioning significantly. Our findings also uncover the role of exogenous factors such as the park’s peri-urban location and post-liberalization policies in adversely affecting “rules-in-use”. A historical approach can offer analysts better grounded and “situated” understandings of the complex interplay between institutions (formal, informal, traditional, modern) and the patterned social practices operating in natural resource systems.

Keywords:

• Conservation
• critical institutionalism
• environmental history
• forest governance
• peri-urban environments

Notes

Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank the research participants who donated their valuable time, knowledge and experience to this study.

Notes

1 Institutions are defined by North (2008) as “rules of the game” operating within a social setting including “both formal rules, informal norms and their enforcement characteristics” (Scott 1995).

2 More popularly known by its colonial name Bangalore.

3 Fire-line is a 20-metre-wide strip of forest that is cut to divide the forest into compartments to limit fire dispersal.

4 Linkages between two variables separated by distance.

Additional information

Funding

Funding support received through the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Nature et Technologies Merit Scholarship for Foreign Students and the William Dawson Scholar Award, McGill University is gratefully acknowledged.