Include bibliographical references.

INTRODUCTION
Forests, especially those in the tropical regions are rapidly depleting every year. Ironically, it is at the same time that people's participation in the management of forests is increasing around the world. This is especially so in the case of tropical forests. These forests are very dense and possess a variety of flora and fauna. The indigenous people who are a part of these ecosystems know them better than most other people, as they are often dependent on them for their lifestyle as well as livelihood, and are thus best equipped to manage these forests. The case of Indian tropical forests is not an exception. After nearly a century of exclusive government control, forests are increasingly being managed with people's participation. Almost all states in India have passed resolutions to facilitate what is now popularly called the Joint Forest Management (JFM) programme. However, its implementation has so far been uneven. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are clothed in some of the finest tropical evergreen forests in the world and are home to a large number of rare and endangered, even undocumented, species of flora and fauna. Forest operations have inflicted wide-scale damage upon the island's environment The biggest losers, in the process, have been the indigenous communities who have lived and flourished there for thousands of years. Today, there are six indigenous communities that live in these islands. The Great Andamaneses, Onges,Jarwas, and Sentenlese live in the Andaman group of islands while the Nicobarese and the Shompens, which are of Mongoloid origin, inhabit the Nicobar group of islands. Forestry operations in the Nicobar Islands have yet to assume the form of large-scale business enterprise, as commercial extraction of timber has not started in these islands at remarkable pace. However, to whatever extent these operations have taken place, they have severely affected a few tribal communities of Negrito origin that live in the forests of the Andaman group of islands. These communities are victims of timber extraction, forest encroachment by mainland people and other developmental activities like the construction of the Andaman Trunk Road. Since 1901, the tribal population has been declining so rapidly that they are on the verge of extinction. As is evident, the maintenance of ecological balance is intimately linked with the survival of these tribal communities which are unique in themselves. They possess a profound knowledge of their ecology and concern for its preservation. There is an old African Proverb which goes: "when an old knowledgeable person dies, a whole library dies". The importance of tribal knowledge is hidden in this proverb: the survival of these groups and preservation of the ecological balance are interconnected.
Although the government has embarked on a number of welfare and development programs for these communities, popular mind still holds that development necessarily means the merging of cultural and social identities of the smaller or weaker communities with that of the dominant culture. Government officials seldom show sensitivity for the thought processes, mental tensions, humiliations and deprivations that a relatively small primitive community might undergo in the process. In fact, it is due to these development processes that tribes are not only declining in their population but their ecological knowledge is also becoming extinct. There is, therefore, a great need to protect these tribes from the possible onslaughts of flawed `development' as well as to utilize their ecological knowledge in the preservation of tropical forests. 'Knowledge' has its own politics. However, like any other production, it also presumes a technology which needs planned manipulation of tools and raw materials, attention to detail of the productive process and reflection on its progress. The technology of knowledge-making consists of set definitions of knowledge as well as education systems which evolve, develop, disseminate and apply that pre-defined knowledge. Every age and social formation has its philosophy and technology of knowledge-building. Acquisition of worthwhile knowledge lies at the heart of the process of social reproduction as well as the material productive process, and as such is one of the most precious and contested terrains of social life.
In the case of Andaman and Nicobar Islands' forest management, government, forest department, forest-based industries and non-aboriginal populations, each has its own professional and cultural interests which define the methods, techniques and system of forest management. All these self constructions are based on economic calculations and have significant political stakes. They include a vision of history and link-up with precise notion of power, knowledge and a good life.
Since 19th century a particular kind of transformation took place in practically the whole world. The state took over the role of a monopolistic agency that controlled the definition and dissemination of knowledge, rendering local truths, ways of life, cosmologies, epistemologies, logics and ethics progressively marginal. Until the 19th century , decisions on what constituted knowledge, what were the best techniques of its transmission and what was essential for a society to do with its children in order to reproduce itself were not regarded as the monopoly of any one agency. In the area of knowledge, we can immediately see how crucial this power can be. Not only does the state acquire a monopoly on definitions, but it also loads every value on its side as pro-civilization and those on the other side as pre- or anti-civilization. Colonizers systematically undermined the local traditional science, technology and crafts of the lands and people they plundered, because of their intellectual arrogance and also in their bid to control and appropriate the economic means of production. Western science has created hegemonic categories of science versus magic, technology versus superstitions etc., which are arbitrary and contrived. It is now recognized that Western criteria are not the sole benchmark by which other cultural knowledge should be evaluated. Many anthropologists who have worked with the so-called 'primitive' peoples have been surprised to learn of some of their highly evolved and sophisticated technologies and knowledge system. These traditional societies have developed their own science to eke out their livelihood through interaction with nature. Their knowledge proves that science did not begin with Galileo or Newton, but from the very advent of humans on this planet. The recognition of this alternative knowledge system, no matter how old it is, is not as easy for the powers that define and construct the knowledge according to their own needs and demands. For example, in the context of present research, when I wrote to forest department, A & N Administration, to grant me permission for field visits to the forest areas, the officials totally denied the existence of any indigenous methods of forest management.

Indian Council of Social Science Research.

English