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Description
The Barandabhar Corridor Forest (BCF) in Nepal is mostly known as an essential traveling path for larger mammals such as rhinos and tigers. Listed as a less-concern species, rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) does not attract much conservation attention. But they have become a source of tension in the communities near the northern BCF, where they live in close quarters with humans. In Devghat and Thimura— two towns where human-macaque conflicts are most rampant—home and crop raiding by macaques is threatening people’s livelihood. Macaques are therefore treated like pests and domestic menace by local residents. Nevertheless, being religiously important, Devghat is also a place for people to worship and build intimate bonds with macaques through feeding. A symbol of the god Hanuman in Hinduism, macaque has a cultural and religious identity that further complicates the human-macaque relationship in the northern BCF. Delving into these intermingled and sometimes conflicting identities of macaques, this study asks the question: how are human-macaque relationships near the northern BCF shaped by the various forms of human-macaque interactions, the institutional structures, and the broader social and cultural backgrounds? In order to answer this question, this study uses more-than-human theories from animal geographies and assemblage theory to conduct a relational analysis of the social-ecological system by focusing on human-macaque relationships. Ethnoprimatological theories and findings have also been used to understand the interactions. The qualitative data were collected from 2 focus group discussions, 13 in-depth interviews, and participatory observations in this thesis. They demonstrate that different interactions create overlapping and sometimes contradictory relationships, and the social and cultural influences are dynamic instead of symbolic and static. By highlighting nonhuman agency such as that of macaques, the study attempts to extend and supplement the existing social-ecological system (SES) framework used for wildlife management and conservation. Instead of suggesting an optimal mitigation measure, this study examines various measures under this different approach, shedding light on how conservation ethics can treat animals as individual subjects with special agencies and needs, and be more attentive to the social and cultural conditions of a particular area.
