Buffer Conflict Resolution Trust of India

The Bison created the Buffer Conflict Resolution Trust of India (BCRTI) a nonprofit organisation addressing conflicts within the buffer regions of our protected forests. Our lodge chose to dedicate itself and start of a healthy dialogue with the local people, leading to mutual respect and trust.

At BCRTI we focus on various conflicts within the buffer regions of Nagarhole & Bandipur National Parks. The absence of a stand-alone Conservation Law in India has frozen any dialogue between the officials and the people living in the buffer zones to a dangerous deadlock. As a consequence, over time, there evolved a complete unaccountability of the officials to the people; empowering the Government to embrace draconian and conflicting laws. This has led to major conflicts in the buffer regions of our protected forests. At BCRTI, income from The Stone Cottage helps us address such conflicts.

Man-Animal Conflict

The local man-official conflict has had severe repercussions, one of them being displaced anger against animals. At BCRTI, we study the reasons and find and implement solutions in the field. It was only after the British introduced exclusionary forest and buffer management policies that we saw a spike in the man-animal conflict. At BCRTI, we devote immense time and energy to resolve this conflict.

Local Man-Official Conflict

Instead of one comprehensive united law we have numerous contradicting ones. To name a few: Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980; Wildlife Protection Act (WLPA), 1972; Environment (Protection) Act, 1986; Indian Fisheries Act, 1897 and Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006.

The FRA is in divergence with the WLPA and that’s just the beginning of a confused and ineffective management system where the forest department is in dangerous conflict not only with itself but also with the people of India. This aggressive stance of the official aggravates the relationship between the locals and officials. The new Eco-Sensitive Zone if implemented correctly, could be hugely beneficial, however it is doing more damage than good as it is paving the way forward to corruption, threats and blackmail of the local people living in and around forested areas.

Social Conflicts

Casteism, Gender Violence, Female Infanticide, Untouchability, Alcoholism are some of the social banes addressed at BCRTI.
This intricate relationship between the wildlife, officials and the locals is the key to success and at BCRTI we work tirelessly to ensure harmony in all aspects.