Mapping of poaching communities, understanding customs and providing livelihood to buy conservation support

The project was implemented by WWF India to work specifically with people from the Mogiya caste, who are involved in hunting and collection of ethnobotanical plants from forest areas. The Mogiya community have traditionally depended on the forest for their food requirements and have a rich knowledge of wildlife, traditional medicines from the forest and animal behaviour. As a result they have been frequently approached by villagers living in nearby forests for their assistance in retaliatory killings of tiger, leopard and ungulates, and by traffickers for the demand of skins and bones and other derivatives. As earnings in the villages are low, people are often attracted to poaching of wildlife and its trade.

The aim of the project is to map all the poaching communities in the landscape and work with them to support alternative livelihoods through vocational training. So far, the project has helped to provide water resources (since water scarcity is high in the area) and solar based lighting systems, as well as work with the government to ensure that all the villagers have a recognised identity including voting ID cards and ration cards. For young children, the project supports admissions to school.