Department of Anthropology, University of Lucknow, (India).
The paper focuses on the perspectives of the sustainable development among the tribals living in forest villages. The paper is a case study of Tharus living in forest villages of district Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh who have the status of Scheduled Tribe but are deprived of the benefits of the development. The study reveals that Tharus living in forest villages have remained neglected over the years due to the following three main reasons: firstly, overlapping of the administration of the departments namely, Directorate of Tribal Development and Department of Forest; secondly, the benefits of development do not reach these forest villages due to their distant and isolated location; thirdly, as the administration of these forest villages is in the hands of forest department which is more concerned with the conservation and development of forest, and in the process the needs and concerns of the tribals living in the forest often gets neglected. The paper attempts to raise issues on the underlying idea behind all the development programmes when the human element itself is getting obscured and neglected in the process of development.
