The Struggle Between Animal Rights and Human Rights

By Senai Assefa

On our trip we visited Ranthambore National Park. The tour of the national park where we saw a wide variety of animals was possible by the preservation of the land. This preservation though, came at the cost of displacing local peoples in the surrounding area. This displacing of native people but saving of wildlife made me uneasy. Yes, it is important to preserve and save animals especially tigers that are in the area as they are an endangered species and any further harm will push them to extinction. However, at the same time, this is harms native people who have lived there as long as the animals and become dependent on the land and the resources in the area. But, once I learned that Dastkar Ranthambore, a NGO in Ranthambore, is helping these native people it eased my worries. This NGO saw that these displaced native people had nowhere to go and that their specialized skills of craft making if not utilized would be forgotten. So, to make money for these native people, this NGO used their skills of craft making and sold their goods to people as well as giving them a banking account to deposit money allowing them to become financially stable.

Drawing parallels between the U.S. and India, the establishment of national parks in both countries came at the price of the displacement of native people. One example of this is Yosemite National Park which was once a sacred land to more than 20 indigenous tribes but was taken by the government, who claimed that the indigenous tribes had never lived in that land at all. However, the difference between the displacement of these native people between the U.S. and India is that there is actual work being done to help these people become financially stable in India through NGOs, while in the U.S. this topic is covered up.