Capturing Land for Elephant Corridors in South India through the Conservation-Agrarian Squeeze

Contemporary conservation visions stress the need to expand land for biodiversity protection globally, despite many critiques saying that this often leads to human dispossession from land and resources. Recent global goals focus on ‘30 × 30’: extending conservation spaces to 30% of the globe by 2030, rendering the question of how to deal with the many people that inevitably live on these lands acute. While not solely reliant on protected areas, this approach incorporates various land types to meet this target, potentially including restrictions on its use. In India, acquiring land for elephant corridors is one example of extending conservation spaces into surrounding agrarian landscapes. This research investigates such a case in South India where farmers whose lands are identified for acquisition already struggle with challenges in the agrarian landscape, including neglect of agriculture by the state, rising financial debt, uncertain and changing weather patterns. Land use restrictions around protected areas, along with lack of compensation for wildlife-induced crop losses, have increased livelihood pressures, forcing farmers to diversify their income sources. Building on the conservation and agrarian literature, this article posits the concept of the ‘Conservation-Agrarian Squeeze’ (CAS) to make sense of the dual forces acting on farmers. This concept describes cases where land enclosure for conservation beyond PAs is facilitated by distress in agrarian landscapes. It also engages with and builds on existing terms such as the grab, induced volition, rendering surplus, and expulsion.