{"id":58446,"date":"2024-05-21T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-21T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/?post_type=ground_up_stories&#038;p=58446"},"modified":"2025-09-03T17:13:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T11:43:15","slug":"tradition-or-tourism-the-tharu-huts-in-dudhwa-national-park","status":"publish","type":"ground_up_stories","link":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/ground-up-stories\/tradition-or-tourism-the-tharu-huts-in-dudhwa-national-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Tradition or tourism? The Tharu huts in Dudhwa National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"IDR Ground Up | Tradition or tourism? The Tharu huts in Dudhwa National Park\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yhpvjVsQMAY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure><p><\/p><p>The Tharu Adivasis in Uttar Pradesh&rsquo;s Lakhimpur Kheri district traditionally resided in huts with roofs made of <em>foos<\/em> (grass straws) and walls built by mixing tree stems with mud. These natural construction materials, which we sourced from the forest, kept our houses cool during the summers. The forest provided us with resources to build our houses and in return we protected it.<\/p><p>However, our access to the forests has been restricted by the forest department since 1977, when Dudhwa National Park was established. This has changed our housing architecture in a significant way. Due to the lack of access to grass, we now use tin to build the roofs of our huts. <\/p><p>Further, to attract tourists to the national park, the department has built modern cottages that they are calling Tharu huts. City dwellers come to stay in these cottages because they want to experience the Tharu culture. <\/p><p>The department&rsquo;s office inside the park showcases information about the Tharu people, including our culture and traditional attire. However, the restrictions placed upon us prevent us from living our traditional way of life. Although it is our culture that draws in the tourists, we don&rsquo;t receive a share of the generated income.<\/p><p><em>Sahvaniya Rana is the general secretary of the Tharu Tribal Mahila Mazdoor Kisan Manch.<\/em><\/p><p>&mdash;<\/p><p><strong>Know more:<\/strong> Read&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/rain-woes-climate-change-brings-farming-challenges-for-tharu-adivasis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">more<\/a>&nbsp;about how climate change is resulting in farming challenges for the Tharu Adivasis.<\/p><p><strong>Do more:<\/strong> Connect with the author at <a href=\"mailto:sahvaniya.rana@gmail.com\">sahvaniya.rana@gmail.com<\/a>&nbsp;to learn more about and support her work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":58448,"template":"","categories":[2652],"tags":[3578,3666,3702],"series":[],"meta-filter":[],"schema-filter":[743],"no-display":[],"class_list":["post-58446","ground_up_stories","type-ground_up_stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rights","tag-adivasi-communities","tag-marginalised-communities","tag-rural-india","contributor-sahvaniya-rana","states-uttar-pradesh","schema-filter-article"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Tradition or tourism? The Tharu huts in Dudhwa National Park | IDR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The forest department in Uttar Pradesh is restricting Tharu Adivasis\u2019 access to the forest, but is using their culture to generate tourism in the area.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/tradition-or-tourism-the-tharu-huts-in-dudhwa-national-park\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"kn_IN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tradition or tourism? The Tharu huts in Dudhwa National Park\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/yhpvjVsQMAY The Tharu Adivasis in Uttar Pradesh\u2019s Lakhimpur Kheri district traditionally resided in huts with roofs made of foos (grass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/tradition-or-tourism-the-tharu-huts-in-dudhwa-national-park\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"India Development Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-03T11:43:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Tharu-hut-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"680\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tradition or tourism? The Tharu huts in Dudhwa National Park | IDR","description":"The forest department in Uttar Pradesh is restricting Tharu Adivasis\u2019 access to the forest, but is using their culture to generate tourism in the area.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/tradition-or-tourism-the-tharu-huts-in-dudhwa-national-park\/","og_locale":"kn_IN","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tradition or tourism? The Tharu huts in Dudhwa National Park","og_description":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/yhpvjVsQMAY The Tharu Adivasis in Uttar Pradesh\u2019s Lakhimpur Kheri district traditionally resided in huts with roofs made of foos (grass","og_url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/tradition-or-tourism-the-tharu-huts-in-dudhwa-national-park\/","og_site_name":"India Development Review","article_modified_time":"2025-09-03T11:43:15+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":680,"url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Tharu-hut-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/tradition-or-tourism-the-tharu-huts-in-dudhwa-national-park\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/tradition-or-tourism-the-tharu-huts-in-dudhwa-national-park\/"},"author":{"name":"Saba Kohli Dave","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#\/schema\/person\/2a7f6169a9cbf488bfcc5805d964ec0b"},"headline":"Tradition or tourism? The Tharu huts in Dudhwa National Park","datePublished":"2024-05-21T09:30:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-03T11:43:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/tradition-or-tourism-the-tharu-huts-in-dudhwa-national-park\/"},"wordCount":267,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/tradition-or-tourism-the-tharu-huts-in-dudhwa-national-park\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Tharu-hut-1.jpg","keywords":["Adivasi communities","Marginalised communities","rural India"],"articleSection":["Rights"],"inLanguage":"kn-IN"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/tradition-or-tourism-the-tharu-huts-in-dudhwa-national-park\/","url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/tradition-or-tourism-the-tharu-huts-in-dudhwa-national-park\/","name":"Tradition or tourism? The Tharu huts in Dudhwa National Park | IDR","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/tradition-or-tourism-the-tharu-huts-in-dudhwa-national-park\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/tradition-or-tourism-the-tharu-huts-in-dudhwa-national-park\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Tharu-hut-1.jpg","datePublished":"2024-05-21T09:30:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-03T11:43:15+00:00","description":"The forest department in Uttar Pradesh is restricting Tharu Adivasis\u2019 access to the forest, but is using their culture to generate tourism in the area.","inLanguage":"kn-IN","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/tradition-or-tourism-the-tharu-huts-in-dudhwa-national-park\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"kn-IN","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/tradition-or-tourism-the-tharu-huts-in-dudhwa-national-park\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Tharu-hut-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Tharu-hut-1.jpg","width":1024,"height":680,"caption":"A small hut-adivasi"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/","name":"India Development Review","description":"India&#039;s first and largest online journal for leaders in the development community","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"kn-IN"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#organization","name":"India Development Review","url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"kn-IN","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/idr-logo-without-tagline-sm.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/idr-logo-without-tagline-sm.webp","width":1,"height":1,"caption":"India Development Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/#\/schema\/person\/2a7f6169a9cbf488bfcc5805d964ec0b","name":"Saba Kohli Dave","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"kn-IN","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/55bfc9dd47e8e646bab9abefb9f4cf13b1162f71c41e255f9e9ec10915f95ad4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/55bfc9dd47e8e646bab9abefb9f4cf13b1162f71c41e255f9e9ec10915f95ad4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/55bfc9dd47e8e646bab9abefb9f4cf13b1162f71c41e255f9e9ec10915f95ad4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Saba Kohli Dave"},"url":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/author\/skohlidave\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ground_up_stories\/58446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ground_up_stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ground_up_stories"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58446"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=58446"},{"taxonomy":"meta-filter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/meta-filter?post=58446"},{"taxonomy":"schema-filter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/schema-filter?post=58446"},{"taxonomy":"no-display","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/no-display?post=58446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}