ABSTRACT
State management of forests and biodiversity in India has had a contested history that initially involved British interests in timber, and subsequently independent India's state-making efforts at controlling land and forests. This chapter describes an effort in a protected area that aims to produce a counter map that locates cultural sites and areas. It presents the mapping effort was to produce an alternate idea of forest landscapes and rethink the place of local people in forest landscapes. The chapter describes a participatory mapping initiative in the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve (BRT) to demonstrate that mapping could play a significant political role in the assertion of rights and identity. BRT has a diversity of vegetation types including scrub, evergreen forests, shola and high-altitude grasslands, supporting a variety of fauna. The rethinking of the map as a social process and practice will give powerful and new meaning to landscapes than the ones that the forest and conservation administration is now purveying.
