Historically, most protected areas were carved out of spaces that were treated as commons or private settlements. Envisioning a landscape as set aside exclusively for wildlife has been a dominant narrative behind this conversion. Such narratives continue today and there is an increasing push for creating separate spaces for humans and wildlife given the larger environmental issues of climate change and resource scarcity. Apart from the state, now conservation organisations, companies and individuals are also driving the reassigning of land for conservation activities through formation of private and state protected areas and afforestation. In the process, commons such as forest commons, grazing grounds, streams, and places for cultivation, are converted to state or private property. While the social consequences of dislocation and displacement are widely recognized, the consequences of these changes to landscape and habitats are less understood.