Women and Forest: A Study of the Warlis of Western India

Abstract

With the loss of access to forests, the Warlis have been deprived not only of an important source of livelihood, but also the basis of their religion and culture. This has affected women and men in different ways. Changes in the forest management system, and the accompanying socio-cultural transformation of the Warli community, have reduced Warli women’s access to land and forest. This has exacerbated the traditional tension between the two genders, which is manifest in a renewed wave of witch hunting. Witch hunting may also be explained as an attack on the high status of women in the past and the change in social relations in favor of men. Nevertheless, the Warli women are taking on the combined might of patriarchy and the men within their community as part of their fight to preserve forests.