Mar 16, 2022
In Wayanad, government funding is scarce, in part, because it is not an official tiger reserve — although, with 120 tigers, according to a 2018 census, it has more of the animals than many marquee tiger reserves. Some Wayanad residents oppose the designation over fears that they would be forcefully relocated outside park limits. Many watchers complained of being paid for only 10 or 12 days a month even though they work for nearly 30, not including overtime. In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, more than 1,200 forest watchers recently filed a plea in the Supreme Court, saying they had not been paid in over a year.
Shalini Venugopal Bhagat, ‘Risking their lives, for little pay, to guard India’s forests’, New York Times
