This paper, using (largely qualitative) ethnographic data, explores Madhav National Park's strict exclusionary policy and how new conservation narratives could be developed there. It argues that the current exclusionary logic, as manifested at Madhav, is flawed. Biodiversity is rapidly diminishing. Autocratic governance precipitates alienation among the lower strata of local people and contributes to illegal resource expropriation. Park policy ignores locally-embedded ability to protect biodiversity and willingness to be educated to that end. There is a pressing need for biological protection at Madhav but severe deprivation also exists in the area. Consequently, site-specific strategies are required that build not solely upon biology or economics but combine these concerns with sensitivity to the lower strata of people that live around the park and to the potential social, material and cultural costs of conservation policies.
