Congratulations to Sugato Dutt on his award!
His paper entitled “Masked by the tiger: an evaluative study of rural livelihoods and conservation values in Northeast India” was presented at the 72nd Annual Meeting of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers held at San Diego, California from Sept. 30th to Oct 3rd 2009. This paper was one of the results of his field research project at the Buxa Tiger Reserve, West Bengal State in India, while working on his dissertation, “Crafting the Conservation Landscape: Resource Use and Participatory Forest Management in the Buxa Tiger Reserve, West Bengal.”
Sponsored by the EWC Research Program, Sugato’s paper won the Committee Award for the Best Regional paper. Sugato’s research examines the attitudes of the local community residing at the vicinity of one of India’s several Tiger Reserves. The reserves, regarded as a symbol of the Indian government’s commitment to protect the tiger, have come under some controversy recently as tiger populations have been reported to decline in India. Much is reported in the Indian and international media about the lack of support for the project at the grassroots level.
Sugato’s research finds that the local community is concerned about the future of the tiger and is willing to help reduce incidents of (timber and wildlife) poaching but cannot give up its economic dependence on minor forest produce including fodder and fuelwood.
Links:
- Read about the EWC Student Programs
- Learn more about the EWC Research Program
- Visit the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers‘ website
The East-West Center Association Blog 
Congrats on your fine work, Sugato! Also on not becoming a culinary research project for any of those tigers. I met a five-man-eater (of Sultanpur) in Lucknow Zoo research enclave recently by virtue of our photos appearing separately in the same newspaper in Visakhapatnam weeks earlier – India continues to amaze and dazzle! Our music NPO 20yrs old this year – see website for updates. Nice to share some fun times with you a few years ago, hope to catch up with you again.
Tim Hoffman
Hi Sugato,
Congratulations! I am very disappointed that we weren’t able to get together when you were at kalchini, but I am glad that your work there was very successful.
I do not know if you know this, but I have relatives living in Buxa Duar. I believe the village falls within the Buxa Tiger Reserve, but you wouldn’t have been there, its very deep in the wilds and very close to the bhutan border.
Congratulations again and good luck.
Rinchen