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2. Challenges

Over the past couple of decades, several factors have cumulatively resulted in extreme pressure on these ecosystems and the lifestyles of these communities. Almost all commons are managed by the State Revenue and Forest Departments. While the Forest Department would like to keep the communities out of the forests, they are under pressure from industrial and economic projects. The land under the Revenue Department is not categorised or properly documented and is kept as ‘wasteland’ available for industrial use, particularly for mining, wind and solar energy projects. This land is badly managed, resulting in huge encroachments, particularly from farming and salt farms.

The pressures on these ecosystems are also from within. The youth from these forest communities are alienated from their ecologies. Formal education has made it harder for them to continue with natural resource-dependent livelihoods, and they are losing the knowledge, socio-cultural values and traditions that their parents practised. Life with their traditional occupations has become difficult and less remunerative.

Sahjeevan’s work on biodiversity can be classified into Governance and Restoration & Conservation Activities.