Snow Leopards, Checkpoints, and Roads

Negotiating Selective Legibility in Hemis National Park, India

Bibliographic Data

ID2175181
AuthorsKarine Gagné (0000-0003-3249-8598), Jigmat Lundup
Year2024
Volume25
Issue2
Pages102-128
Publication date2024-03-14
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCanberra Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0314-9099 • E-ISSN: 1740-9314
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14442213.2024.2327390
OpenAlexW4393012903
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited70

Established with the goal of protecting endangered species, Hemis National Park in Ladakh, India, is a hotspot for trekkers and wildlife tourism. A process of selective legibility operates inside the park, as the conditions that make wildlife legible to the state are effectively rendering residents illegible because the building of infrastructure inside the park is either denied or delayed. Today, residents’ subsistence is largely predicated on the conditions of illegibility, as tourism-related incomes have displaced traditional agro-pastoral activities. Residents, however, have strong aspirations for roads, the absence of which complicates life within the national park. As the developing road network threatens to disturb residents’ subsistence, they developed a checkpoint, a device that recreates conditions of illegibility by preventing vehicle traffic inside the park. Ultimately, this article calls for attention to the creative ways communities negotiate their relationship with the state when facing a governance over space that leaves them marginalised

Advertising · Archaeology · Biology · Business · Geography · Habitat · Legibility · Leopard · Meteorology · National park · Negotiation · Political science · Snow · Snow leopard · Ecology · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Hydropower, Displacement, Environmental Impact · Water Governance and Infrastructure

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