Kalli Doubleday, Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Geograohy and the Environment presents her work.

Abstract: Sariska Tiger Reserve, in Rajasthan, India primarily supports its large rural population by providing fodder for livestock. To acquire this natural resource, women are tasked with shepherding livestock into the reserve or going to collect it and bring it back to the livestock safely tied up at home. Women's disproportionate risk to encountering a tiger or leopard compared to their male family members falls well within established feminist political ecology findings of women's gender roles and risk. However, still, to be explored, are hidden social costs as a result of the gendered division of labor within a network of apex predators and economic dependence on the vegetation within tiger territories. Through 20 focus groups, this research explores those hidden costs. Specifically, I explore links between women’s bodily risk in providing for livestock, which fluctuates in accordance with large carnivore encounters that result in variation in livestock milk production. At the small scale this variation may result in domestic violence, or at a larger scale result in social stigma and shame at the inability to pay for dowries. These social, at-home and in-community costs are not part of the discussion on tiger reintroduction initiatives, yet may have enormous impacts on attitudes of those living alongside tigers, and thus overall conservation success.