The Park remains untouched by any road network and thus provides a unique opportunity for sound conservation efforts. Until the 1960s human pressure on the Sainj-Tirthan area grew very slowly. People in the area were primarily living at a subsistence level with very limited export of natural resources beyond the area. More recently, the state government's commitment to rapid economic and social development of the area put great pressures on the environment. To overcome the Kullu mountain region's inaccessibility, road and transport infrastructure became a first priority. In the late 1960s, local roads were steadily improved to make automotive traffic possible. These roads enabled regular bus service, allowing villagers from remote areas easy access to major towns for markets and labor.

Traditional Conservation
Nature conservation in the villages close to the western periphery of the Great Himalayan National Park has traditionally been an integral part of the lifestyle of the local villagers. The Devta or deity institutions dominate the social fabric. Attached to these Devta committees are sacred groves which are exclusively protected in name of the Devta. Over several hundreds of years, the villagers have made their own rules for these sacred groves which even today are honored. The sacred groves of Shenshar Valley, Jiwanal, and Lapah village are some of the best examples of such local conservation efforts. To a villager, the sacred grove is a matter of great divine respect. For a scientist it can be a reference point to study biological diversity.
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Commercial Crops

As roads and transportation improved, the state government began the expansion of market agriculture. This work centered in the main Kullu valley at first and was then extended into the Sainj-Tirthan area in the late 1960s. The growing markets for cash crops, especially fruit, allowed a major opportunity to "modernize" the agricultural economy.

The promise of rural economic development needs to be balanced against the danger of adverse environmental impacts, which could ultimately undermine any economic gains made. For the village economy, these new markets created new prosperity. Unfortunately, it was not all equitable. Urban traders were major beneficiaries of the new income, and the larger landowners were able to profit from planting orchards. The landless Scheduled Castes, at the bottom of the economy, benefited only in the form of wage labor.
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Conservation and Human Pressures
The Indian Forest Department's modern policies are consistent with the overall development priorities of state. The value of the forest is recognized not only in the physical field such as conservation of soil and moisture, prevention of erosion and increase in rain fall etc., but also in the economic field such as development of agriculture, industry, and communication.

In response to environmental criticisms, commercial logging was banned statewide in 1978 with the Forest Department reorienting their work toward reforestation and conservation. Reforestation had begun almost at the beginning of the Forest Department's existence, over a century before, but its priorities were very different from villagers' interests. From very early on, the Forest Department had planted commercial species in Reserved and Protected Forests, at the expense of fodder trees.

Timber Distribution
One vitally important feature for villagers' lives was the system of Timber Distribution (TD) rights: granting timber trees from government forests to villagers for construction, for very low fees. By the 1970s the question of TDs was becoming an increasingly contentious between forest officials and villagers. In an accelerating trend, many village families were splitting from larger joint households into nuclear units, so there was a steady increase in demand for housing construction.

Grazing Pressures

Research in GHNP saw domestic grazing as largely destructive of wildlife and habitats, reducing the amount and diversity of shrubs and ground vegetation and causing severe alteration of the natural forest flora. In most areas this reduces the suitability of the habitat for wildlife. The upward spring migration of flocks to high meadows (or thatches) probably disrupts nesting habitats of pheasants and other species. It was estimated that up to 1999, about 20,000 to 30,000 sheep and goats migrated into the area each season.

Medicinal Herbs and Non-Timber Forest Products
The second major pressure on GHNP's species diversity is the collection of medicinal herbs, as well as other forest products, including the commercially valuable morel mushroom. Until the 1960s there was no significant commercial market for the major herbs, and no one anticipated that this would become a critical issue for the Park.
Beginning in the 1960s the commercial market expanded enormously, giving local people a major new source of income. Before 1999, a survey indicates that 70-85% of households gained cash income from collecting and selling herbs. The collecting season was restricted to only two months, 15 August to 15 October. But with the temptations of the booming market, collectors expanded their work to the entire season, from April to November. This has resulted in depletion of several species of herbs and medicinal flora (e.g., local names: karu, muskabala, dhoop, guchhi). The system of trade begins with many local shopkeepers, who buy from the gatherers. The herbs are shipped from these towns to Amritsar, Delhi, Bombay, and beyond. Nearly 40 species are collected. About 2000 to 4000 persons entered the area to collect herbs each season.

Hunting
Hunting of birds and mammals, another important source of the natural wealth, also underwent basic restrictions. In the years immediately after Independence many local shikaris (hunters) obtained licenses for snaring musk deer and hawks. Monal, Western tragopan and koklas pheasants were killed for their crest feathers which were used for hats. Falcons were sold to Pathan traders. Poachers also took their toll on deer and ungulates used for food and commercial products.

Prior to GHNP's protection, skyrocketing prices on international markets, parallel to the explosion of some medicinal herb prices, rapidly outstripped the capacity of officials to control or even monitor the harvest. The most dangerous case was the market for the musk pod of male musk deer, which were hunted close to extinction in the area in the 1970s. The first GHNP wildlife survey reported that the price for musk pods had spiraled upward in the 1970s. The price for brown and black bear skins as well as the bile of black bear had also escalated over 100 fold. The actual hunters continued to be mostly local men, but there were some outsiders too. In 1982 most hunting was banned in Himachal including GHNP.

Current Conservation

Efforts to conserve forests and wildlife are gradually shifting away from a law enforcement and use-restrictions approach (of the 1980s and 90s), towards community participation emphasizing equitable and sustainable use of natural resources by local people. This change in approach is particularly important in remote rural areas of Himachal Pradesh, where biodiversity is concentrated, where poverty tends to be all pervasive, and where the outreach of government development programs is often limited. This has meant a new emphasis on finding ways of deriving new economic opportunities from biological resources that will lead to increase in land productivity as well as provide alternative sources of livelihood.

In India, efforts to link protected area management with local social and economic development programs are referred to as ecodevelopment, i.e., ecologically sustained development. Although the concept of ecodevelopment has been under discussion in India for more than a decade, practical steps towards developing and testing workable approaches in the field have begun only recently. Efforts are focusing on two areas:
(1) community participation, with the objective of promoting sustainable use of land and other resources, as well as on-farm and off-farm income generating activities which are not harmful to the environment.
(2) limiting rural development, with the participation of local people, for the purpose of reconciling genuine human needs with the specific aims of protected area management.

A strategy of active involvement of the local people in biodiversity conservation demands enhancing the productivity of village lands. The Great Himalayan National Park ecozone area is a huge repository of local knowledge about the uses of the medicinal herbs. They know the medicinal plants very well. Livelihood options in the post-settlement period include, vermicomposting, medicinal herb cultivation, and handicraft development. There are good opportunities to support a people-oriented medicinal herb propagation program outside the Park. This has great potential, but requires significant development (proper market tie-ups, value additions, etc.).
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