How Beautiful We Were: Postcolonial Reflections on Eco-Colonialism in Nepal’s Tiger Conservation

Imbolo Mbue’s novel How Beautiful We Were (2021) uncovers the tragedy of how corporate greed, economic exploitation, and land grabbing by the power have ruined the expectations of the indigenous people and placed them in severe environmental injustice. This paper has adopted the novel’s narrative in relation to post-colonial environmental justice with the experiences of local people in and around Bardiya National Park and the tiger conservation activities in Nepal’s Terai. Mbue’s representation of Kosawa, where state-sanctioned environmental progress is the result of power, dispossession, clarifies how conservation violence echoes colonial violence in the ways and to the extent that its enclosures ancestral lands, damages of people’s lives, and renders locals voiceless. Examining the Nepali media reports, and policy documents, the paper seeks to explore the Nepali communities living near to the Nationalpark, the rise in human–tiger conflict due to the increasing tiger populations, and the unequal systems of compensation and accountability that govern loss and death. The paper also examines how Nepal’s celebrated tiger conservation success has led to increased social suffering, especially among local community and economically disadvantaged people. The article concludes by calling for a shift toward conservation grounded in environmental justice which recognizes indigenous rights, values local knowledge, and places community safety at the center of conservation practice.

Tiger, Kosawa, locals, Nepal, colonialism, environment

1. Amnesty International. (2021). Conservation and discrimination: Case studies from Nepal's national parks. https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org/news-and-resources/conservation-and-discrimination-case-studies-from-nepals-national-parks [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

2. Karki, N. (2021, August 4). A tale of displacement for conservation. The Record Nepal. https://www.recordnepal.com/a-tale-of-displacement-for-conservation [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

3. Mahato, B. (2021, August 17). I am Tharu from Chitwan and I ask, conservation for whom? The Record Nepal. https://www.recordnepal.com/i-am-a-tharu-from-chitwan-and-i-ask-conservation-for-whom [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

4. Mbue, I. (2021). How beautiful we were. Random House. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

5. Neupane, T. (2022, June 11). Bardiya residents are paying the brutal price of tiger conservation. The Kathmandu Post. https://kathmandupost.com/province-no-5/2022/06/11/bardiya-residents-are-paying-the-brutal-price-of-tiger-conservation [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

6. Nicolai, S., Hiemisch, A., & Kleemann, S. (2026). …And justice for all: Justice sensitivity outweighs empathy in pro-environmental behavior Frontiersin Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1712314 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

7. Nixton, R. (2011). Slow violence and the environmentalism of the poor. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt2jbsgw [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

8. Paudel, R. K. (2024, July 28). Buffer zone area residents in Chitwan continue to get killed in human-animal conflict. The Kathmandu Post. https://kathmandupost.com/province-no-3/2024/07/28/buffer-zone-area-residents-in-chitwan-continue-to-get-killed-in-human-animal-conflict [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

9. Paudel, R. K. (2024, July 28). Buffer zone area residents in Chitwan continue to get killed in human-animal conflict. The Kathmandu Post. https://kathmandupost.com/province-no-3/2024/07/28/buffer-zone-area-residents-in-chitwan-continue-to-get-killed-in-human-animal-conflict [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

10. Republica. (2023, July 25). Youth dies in tiger attack in Chitwan. MyRepublica. https://myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com/news/youth-dies-in-tiger-attack-in-chitwan [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

11. Sharma, B. (2022, June 8). Police brutality throws spotlight on Nepal's flawed conservation landscape. Everest Chronicle. https://everestchronicle.com/police-brutality-throws-spotlight-on-nepals-flawed-conservation-landscape [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

12. Sunuwar, D. K. (2020, August 4). Violence against Chepang peoples in Nepal sparks outrage at national park authorities and conservation movement. Cultural Survival. https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/violence-against-chepang-peoples-nepal-sparks-outrage-national-park-authorities-and [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

13. Survival International. (2019, February). When WWF's conservation looks like colonialism, it's time for a new approach. https://survivalinternational.org/articles/3606-when-wwfs-conservation-looks-like-colonialism-its-time-for-a-new-approach [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

14. Survival International. (2019, March 17). When WWF’s conservation looks like colonialism, it’s time for a new approach. https://survivalinternational.org/articles/3606-when-wwfs-conservation-looks-like-colonialism-its-time-for-a-new-approach [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

15. Tharu, D. J., & Gupta, A. S. (2023, August 9). Nepal's Tharu are tiger protectors. Citizens' Platform (IPS Academy/UNESCO). https://www.citiplat.org/post/nepal-s-tharu-are-tiger-protectors [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

16. Velu, R., & Velu, R. (2024). This story must be told:” Unveiling environmental and social tapestry in Imbolo Mbue’s How Beautiful We Were. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03944-z [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

17. WarrenT &Baker,K.J.M.(2019,March). WWF's secret war. BuzzFeed News. https://www.europeanpressprize.com/article/wwfs-secret-war/ [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

18. Williams, G., & Mawdsley, E. (2006). Postcolonial environmental justice: Government and governance in India. Geoforum, 37(5), 660–670. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2005.08.003 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

19. WWF. (2022). Nepal successfully doubles their wild tiger population. Retrieved from https://tigers.panda.org/news_and_stories/stories/nepal_successfully_doubles_their_wild_tiger_population/ [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

• Agarwood: A Fragrant Link between India and Southeast Asia
• Pens of Protest: Malayalam Press in the Freedom Struggle
• Long-Term Trends of Temperature and Rainfall in Sivakasi: A Climatic Assessment (1980–2025)
• Iran’s Forgotten Friend William Morgan Shuster: Victim of Anglo-Russian Conspiracy
• The (Moordkop) Murder Hill Massacre 1830: A Historical Analysis of the Griqua-Ndebele Conflict