Doddasampige | ದೊಡ್ಡಸಂಪಾಗೆ

Who makes a map, why they want to make one at all, and on what authority and legitimacy they draw, determine the map they produce. Governments make maps all the time. Such an official map of forests produced by a formal state authority, say, can look very different from one drawn under the authority of science. Or a map made by the communities that use and dwell in and around forests, can look still more different. With not only land, but even water, wind and sun, all becoming monetisable, business corporations too are keen on making maps, with theirs unlikely to resemble the other three. Maps are thus not only representations of place and time, but are also mirrors to the contestations that animate place and time.

In this talk, MD Madhusudan looks at examples of how forests, ‘wastelands’ and protected areas have been mapped, to examine and illustrate the essentially political nature of mapping. There are—and will always be—many maps of nature and its ever-morphing boundaries with human culture. They must serve as invitations to a conversation about the many ways of defining, delineating and sustaining nature, than as calls to battle for the one map to end all conversations.